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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Florì in the province of Ravenna

Photo: IMAGO/Us / IMAGO/ZUMA Wire

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni visited the areas affected by the floods in the Emilia-Romagna region on Sunday afternoon. Meloni left the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, early to observe developments from Italy. Among others, she met with the President of the Region, Stefano Bonaccini.

As can be seen in a video on social media, she visited Forlì with a small delegation, as well as places in the province of Ravenna. Wearing rubber boots, she spoke to citizens on the street. The aim of her visit is to get an idea of the situation for herself. Meloni was moved: "It's a tragedy."

EU wants to supply pumping equipment

To cope with the floods, the EU wants to supply pumping equipment to Italy as part of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

In the Emilia-Romagna region, there is still no all-clear. Also on Monday, the highest red alert level will apply in parts of this area on the Adriatic coast, the Civil Protection said. Although the rain has weakened and clean-up work is underway, geologists are now warning in particular of the risk of landslides.

Many roads have completely disappeared and have to be completely rebuilt, the Ansa news agency quotes geologist Paride Antolini.

At least 14 people have died as a result of the floods and landslides. Thousands had to be evacuated. The storms caused severe damage in the region. Entire fields and streets are flooded or now blocked by huge masses of mud. Because of the landslides, many houses and farms are also insulated. Since the beginning of the storms, the Italian fire brigade moved out to almost 4000 operations, as it was said on Sunday morning. Most of the missions were in the areas around Bologna, Ravenna, Forlì-Cesena and Rimini.

»Completely rebuilding the road network«

Clean-up work is underway in the affected areas. There, the helpers reveal serious damage. These amounted to several billion euros, said the vice-president of Emilia-Romagna, Irene Priolo. In some places, the "road network has to be completely rebuilt".

Meanwhile, other Italian regions were also affected by severe weather over the weekend. The Calabria region in the south of the Mediterranean country had to contend with strong winds in particular. In Sicily, too, firefighters said they were out on many missions due to heavy rain.

In the northern Italian region of Piedmont, there was some heavy rainfall. In the capital Turin, for example, pictures show how barriers were erected to restrict access to the Po River.

jpa/dpa