Northern Italy hit by bad weather and flooding

St. Mark's Square in Venice.

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Heavy rains caused significant flooding this Sunday in northern Italy.

A red alert was thus triggered in certain areas of Veneto, Friuli and the province of Bolzano.

In the space of a few hours, firefighters in the Veneto region had to carry out more than 400 emergency interventions between Belluno, Vicenza, Treviso and Venice.

In Modena, in Emilia-Romagna (north), the Panaro river has overflowed its course, causing the evacuation of inhabitants in certain areas where the water has risen to 1.5 meters.

Five hundred interventions in the Alto Adige region

In addition, rail traffic between Bolzano and the Brenner Pass at the Austrian border, where heavy snowfall was recorded, was stopped due to the risk of avalanches and falling rocks and trees.

The city of Bolzano can no longer be reached except by motorway, the other access roads having had to be closed.

The avalanche alert has also been activated in the Dolomites and Alto Adige (far north), where firefighters have carried out 500 interventions in the last 24 hours.

The south not totally spared

At the same time, the Po, the main Italian river, rose 2.5 meters.

"The situation of the largest Italian river is representative of the state of the rivers in the north of the peninsula", underlined Coldiretti, one of the main agricultural unions.

The south of the country, although less affected, was not totally spared: in Sicily, a violent storm hit Messina last night, inundating streets and access roads.

Maritime links with the Aeolian Islands (north of Sicily) have been suspended since Saturday due to strong winds.

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