25 feared dead as avalanche turns Italian hotel into 'coffin'

At least 25 people, including several children, were feared dead Thursday after a devastating avalanche buried an Italian mountain hotel under snow and mud. The hotel was engulfed by a two-metre (six-feet) high wall of snow late on Wednesday afternoon with the impact powerful enough to rip the three-storey building from its foundations and move it ten metres (yards). "We're holding on to hope that there are survivors inside," Deputy Interior Minister Filippo Bubbico told reporters in the town of Penne, where a camp for rescue workers has been set up.

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