Flooding on the southern Italian island of Sicily has killed ten people, including nine members of a family drowned in their homes. As the emergency services announced on Sunday, among the victims were children aged one, three and 15 years.
The bodies of the affected family were found in their house in Casteldaccia near Palermo. They drowned when a small river near the house overflowed the banks. Three other relatives were able to escape to safety.
According to the agency, a 44-year-old gas station operator died on Saturday night in Vicari township when he wanted to rush a worker to help. Two people were still missing. Already at the beginning of the week heavy rain had caused flooding on Sicily. Many roads were impassable, schools remained closed.
The number of fatalities in the thunderstorms that have been going on in Italy for days has thus increased to at least 30. Since the beginning of the week, there have been heavy storms and storms in many parts of the country.
In the Dolomites trees were turned over like matches. In the north-eastern Veneto region, hundreds of trees were uprooted in a heavy storm on Thursday. "It's like after an earthquake," said the governor of the region, Luca Zaia. "Thousands of acres of forest have been razed to the ground, like a gigantic chainsaw." The lagoon city of Venice had been under water on Monday. The Italian civil defense spoke of one of the most complex weather conditions of the past 60 years.