Avalanche buries Italian spa hotel; at least 30 missing

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Avalanche buries Italian spa hotel; at least 30 missing

An avalanche buried a four-star spa hotel in a mountainous earthquake-hit region of central Italy, leaving around 30 guests and staff missing, authorities said Thursday. The civil protection agency said it was working to get rescue vehicles to the Hotel Rigopiano through roads covered in snow, joining initial rescue efforts by alpine rescue teams. Italian media said that the avalanche covered the three-story hotel in Abruzzo on Wednesday, where earthquakes also hit the region — including one with a 5.7 magnitude. But it wasn’t immediately clear if temblors triggered the avalanche.

What is certain is that the building took a direct hit from the avalanche. … It took the whole hotel with it.

Antonio Di Marco, Pescara province president, where the hotel is located

Central Italy has been struck by a series of quakes since August that destroyed historic centers in dozens of towns and hamlets. A deadly quake in August killed nearly 300. No one died in the strong aftershocks in October largely because population centers had already been evacuated.