Italian hotel hit by avalanche killing several people
Several people in Rigopiano hotel have been killed after it was hit by an avalanche, triggered apparently by an earthquake on 18th January 2016, Wednesday. Rescuers struggled to reach the hotel near the Garn Sasso Mountain in the Abruzzo region. The roof of the hotel partially collapsed and local residents in Farindola rang the emergency services. As the snowstorm blocked the route access to the hotel was very difficult and rescuers could only reach the hotel on skis at 4:00 am ( 3:00 GMT) on Thursday. The hotel was occupied by 30 guests.
Abruzzo regions Marche and Lazio were hit by days of heavy snow and made many villages inaccessible.
Four strong earthquakes measuring a magnitude of 5.4 have struck a part of Italy that has been hit by snow, including the L’Aquila region, northeast of Rome according to the European –Mediterranean Seismological Centre. The second quake was 5.7 in magnitude hit the same area about an hour later, and third 10 minutes later was a measure at a 5.3 magnitude. The quake was flet in Rome about 60 miles (100km) away. Italy overlaps the Eurasian and African tectonic plates, prone to seismic activity when they move.
Back on 24th August 2016, 298 people were killed by an earth quake in the same region.