Rescuers search for 28 after avalanche hits Italian hotel

PENNE, Italy — Rescue crews who reached the four-star mountain resort on skis found only eerie silence Thursday after a huge avalanche flattened the hotel, trapping more than 30 people inside.

Two bodies were recovered, but the search for survivors was hampered by heavy snowfall and fears the buildings would collapse.

Days of heavy snowfall had knocked out electricity and phone lines in many central Italian towns and hamlets, and the hotel phones went down early Wednesday, just as the first of four powerful earthquakes struck the region.

[...] emergency responders said the force of the massive snow slide collapsed a wing of the hotel that faced the mountain and rotated another off its foundation, pushing it downhill.

Accounts emerged of hotel guests messaging rescuers and friends for help Wednesday, with at least one attempt at raising the alarm rebuffed for several hours.

Rescue teams had tried to reach the scene in a snowplow but were blocked by fallen trees and rocks.