Children Among Many Feared Dead In Italy Avalanche

AMATRICE, Italy, , (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th Jan, 2017 ) - Several children were among more than 25 people unaccounted for, feared dead, Thursday after an avalanche engulfed a mountain hotel in earthquake-ravaged central Italy.

The national civil protection agency said the Hotel Rigopiano had suffered a direct hit by a two-metre (six-feet) high wall of snow on Wednesday.

Emergency services were struggling to get ambulances and excavation equipment to the remote site with the first snow plough only arriving just before midday.

Italian broadcasters showed images of piles of masonry and rubble inside the hotel, which had been moved some ten metres from its original location by the force of the snow. Local officials confirmed that one body had been recovered from the ruins and that two guests who were not inside when the avalanche struck had been saved.