Many people are reported to have been killed after a ski hotel in Italy was hit by an avalanche following a series of earthquakes yesterday.
Rescuers battled overnight to reach the hotel close to the Gran Sasso mountain in the Abruzzo region folloiiwng three days of heavy snow, the BBC reported.
More than 20 guests and seven staff were at the Hotel Rigopiano in Pescara, a province in the Abruzzo region, at the time.
“There are many deaths,” Antonio Crocetta, the head of a mountain rescue team, was quoted as saying.
Four strong quakes struck in a single day in the central region of Italy.
They caused landslides with thousands of homes suffering from power cuts and some villages cut off.
Schools were evacuated while the underground system in Rome was suspended as a safety precaution.