ROME — An avalanche has buried a mountainside hotel in central Italy, and civil protection officials said on Thursday that up to 30 people were missing, citing local officials.
The avalanche came after four earthquakes struck the region on Wednesday, prompting officials to close schools and the subway system in Rome, about 100 miles to the southwest, as a precaution.
News channels in Italy showed images of the roof collapsed on the main hall of the hotel, the Rigopiano, although it was not clear if the structural damage had been caused by the earthquakes or by the avalanche. Other images showed corridors piled high with snow, leaves and branches.
The epicenters of the four strong earthquakes were in central Italy, which has been hit by deadly quakes with increasing frequency in recent years. Officials registered more than 100 aftershocks on Wednesday.
Sky TG24 television said at least one person was reported to have died at the Rigopiano, which is described on its website as a “posh mountainside hotel resort with spa” in the town of Farindola, nestled in the mountains.
Emergency vehicles tried to assist Alpine rescue teams in the region, part of the Gran Sasso National Park, but rescue efforts were hampered by heavy snow on roads, the civil protection agency said.
Francesco Provolo, the prefect of Pescara, the province that includes Farindola, told RAI News that rescuers had to travel more than five miles on skis and snowshoes to reach the hotel, as billowing snow continued throughout the night.
A spokesman for the civil protection department in Pescara had estimated that up to 30 people were in the hotel at the time of the avalanche.
The four-star hotel has 43 rooms, but it was not clear how many guests were staying there at the time of the avalanche.
Three quakes in central Italy last year killed nearly 300 people in and around the medieval town of Amatrice ; on Wednesday, the tower of one of the town’s churches was destroyed by temblors.
L’Aquila was devastated in 2009 by an earthquake that killed more than 300 people.
