At least 25 people, including several children, were feared dead Thursday after a devastating avalanche buried an Italian mountain hotel under snow and mud.
Rescue work continued into the night but the prospects of anyone being rescued alive from the ill-fated Hotel Rigopiano looked bleak, with rescue efforts hampered by heavy snow that had blocked access roads to the remote site.
The hotel was engulfed by a two-meter (six-feet) high wall of snow late on Wednesday afternoon with the impact powerful enough to rip the three-storey building from its foundations and move it ten metres (yards).
“A small avalanche has created a wall of snow across the path to the hotel, we are heading up there now to knock it down,” said army Major Nicola Cappozolo.
Two bodies were extracted from the rubble and two survivors were taken to hospital suffering from hypothermia.
Italian broadcasters showed images of piles of masonry and rubble in the entrance area of what they dubbed a “coffin hotel.” (AFP)
