Italian village receives more than 8 feet of snow in just 18 hours

Snow in Capracotta

A tiny village in Italy is claiming to be one of the snowiest places in the world after it was smothered under more than eight feet (2.56 metres) of snow in less than 24 hours.

An intense storm left the inhabitants of Capracotta climbing out of first floor windows onto great mounds of snow and having to get around on snowshoes and skis.

Other locals had to dig tunnels from their front doors in order to be able to leave their homes.

Capracotta can now claim to be one of the snowiest places in the world

It was the largest amount of snow to fall on the village, in the Molise region of central Italy, since 1956.

"In Colorado, they had two metres of snow in 24 hours, but here it took just 16 hours for that amount to fall," said Antonio Monaco, the mayor of the village, which has 1,400 inhabitants.

"It was a spectacle that took our breath away. In some parts of the village the snow was like a long white wall," he told Ansa, Italy's national news agency.

"It was tough but everybody pulled together and made sure that the old people who couldn't leave their houses had the food and medicines that they needed."

Strong winds created snow drifts up to three metres deep.

While Capracotta was worst hit by the blizzard, many other towns and villages in Molise were also affected, including Campobasso, Pescocostanzo, Pescopennataro and Vastogirardi.

Heavy snowfall also hit the neighbouring mountainous region of Abruzzo.

The snowstorm hit on March 5 and left some villages cut off from the outside world.

Schools were closed and roads closed after heavy trucks became stranded in the snow.