Avalanche blocks access to Val d'Aosta town

(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 4 - The small Alpine town of Rhêmes-Notre-Dame in the northwestern Val d'Aosta was cut off on Monday morning after an avalanche triggered by recent heavy snowfall blocked the access road during the night.
    "There are no reports of damage to people or property. The avalanche occurred in the hamlet of Mélignon and the road has been closed further down the valley, in the hamlet of Frassiney," said Rhêmes-Saint-Georges Mayor Nella Therisod.
    Technical experts are now assessing when the road can safely be reopened for the roughly 80 residents and winter tourists stuck in the town.
    Elsewhere in the mountain region on the border with France, around 4,500 people living in the upper Gressoney valley have been isolated since Sunday after a mass of falling snow blocked the entrance to a tunnel at Gaby, while in Cogne almost 2,000 people were cut off after the access road was closed as a precautionary measure.
    Meanwhile, in neighbouring Piemonte, heavy rains have reportedly caused damage in the Alessandria area, where the hydrogeological alert in some municipalities has been raised to red level.
    Further south, falling temperatures have brought snowfall to Mount Vesuvius near Naples in Campania and to the Gennargentu massif in central Sardinia. (ANSA).