Italy hotel buried by avalanche; deaths reported

They reported no signs of life inside the building and one of their commanding officers told reporters: “There are many dead”.

He called Quintino Marcella, a restaurant owner, at 5.30pm on Wednesday, saying: “Help me, an avalanche has hit and the hotel isn’t there anymore”.

Head of the department Fabrizio Curcio said that despite the odds, his workers would continue their rescue operation.

Emergency services have been dispatched to the scene where up to 20 people have been staying in the hotel, according to Italian media reports.

Rescue efforts finally began overnight.

Residents in central Italy have grown accustom to such natural disasters in recent years – last year almost 300 people were killed by an earthquake in Amatrice, while in 2009 about 300 died when a quake struck the town of L’Aquila.

Italian rescuers dug frantically through the wall of snow, which was triggered by a string of earthquakes, in search of survivers at Hotel Rigopiano.

Snow and debris fill the interior of Hotel Rigopiano in Farindola, Italy, in a police photo released Thursday.

As of late Thursday local time, the authorities recused two survivors, one of whom was treated for frostbite, and found three dead bodies. Because of recent heavy snowfall that already shut down roads, officials struggled to reach remote areas following the quakes on Wednesday, and they’re still trying to get to some towns.

Franco Barberi, a senior official in Italy’s civil protection agency, attributed the high death toll after the 2009 L’Aquila quake to a “lack of control on the quality of construction”, Reuters reports.

It came after several strong earthquakes struck the Abruzzo region of central Italy.

He said that the auto had not been buried and that he waited there for rescuers.

A man was saved because he had gone outside to his vehicle to retrieve something.

The hotel, which is four star and is located in the state of Pescara, is now completely buried in ice and snow.

All the aftershocks hit around Amatrice, in the mountainous regions of Marche, Lazio and Abruzzo.