30 people missing after avalanche buries hotel in Italy

Italian media said the avalanche covered the three-storey hotel in Abruzzo, an earthquake-hit zone of central Italy, on Wednesday evening.

News agency ANSA quoted a rescuer as saying there were fatalities, but details were not immediately available.

The president of Pescara province wrote on Facebook that there were 20 guests at the hotel when it was covered by the avalanche, about 30 miles from the coastal city of Pescara.

The civil protection agency said it is working to get emergency vehicles to the Hotel Rigopiano through roads covered in snow, joining initial rescue efforts overnight by alpine rescue squads.