ZB ZB
Live now
Start time
Playing for
End time
Listen live
Listen to NAME OF STATION
Up next
Listen live on
ZB

Avalanche buries 30 at luxury Italian hotel

Author
AAP,
Publish Date
Fri, 20 Jan 2017, 5:23AM
An aerial view of Hotel Rigopiano after it was hit by an avalanche (Getty Images)
An aerial view of Hotel Rigopiano after it was hit by an avalanche (Getty Images)

Avalanche buries 30 at luxury Italian hotel

Author
AAP,
Publish Date
Fri, 20 Jan 2017, 5:23AM

Up to 30 people remain buried under snow in a luxury hotel in Italy.

The hotel was buried by a huge avalanche that was triggered by a series of strong earthquakes that rocked the area.

Three bodies had been retrieved from the site. Rescue workers declined to comment on the reports, but said they had yet to find any sign of life.

The gabled peaks of parts of the roof and a row of windows were the only sections of the four-storey Hotel Rigopiano still visible after the wall of snow smashed into the four-star spa resort early on Wednesday evening.

Local authorities said about 30 people had been in the building at the time, including two children, but more than 20 hours later, only a couple of survivors had been found - two men who had been outside when the disaster struck.

"The hotel is almost completely destroyed. We've called out but we've heard no replies, no voices," said Antonio Crocetta, a member of the Alpine Rescue squad.

"We're digging and looking for people," he said.

Rescue workers entered what appeared to be a lobby decorated with oil paintings and plants, where a landslide had torn through a wall, television footage showed.

Mattresses and furniture were spotted dozens of metres away and sniffer dogs were brought to the area to help locate possible survivors.

"I am alive because I went to get something from my car," one of the two survivors, Giampiero Parete, told medical staff.

Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni called for national unity, saying Italy was caught in an "unprecedented vice" of earthquakes and heavy snows simultaneously.

The rescue operation was hampered by metres of snow which has fallen on the Gran Sasso in recent days.

Drifts made snow as deep as five metres in some places and snow ploughs struggled to cut a path up winding mountain roads.

The first rescuers only managed to arrive at 4.30am after having to ski through a blizzard to reach the site.

After dawn broke, emergency services sent in helicopters.

The avalanche shunted the 43-room hotel, which is 1,200 metres above sea level, some 10 metres down the hill.

The disaster struck just hours after four earthquakes with a magnitude of above 5.0 hit central Italy.

Take your Radio, Podcasts and Music with you