2 yıl önce

Several killed as violent storms, heavy rain lash central Italy

Local authorities say they did not expect such a "water bomb" that killed at least seven people and flooded roads and houses.

Rescue workers have arrived on a dinghy boat after heavy rains hit the east coast of Marche region in Italy.

Heavy rains and violent storms have hit the central Italian region of Marche, flooding roads and killing at least seven people, Italian media has reported.

Three others, including a six-year-old child, are still missing in the rains. The mother was rescued but the child was washed away by the floodwaters, the AGI news agency said on Friday.

The Corriere della Sera newspaper said about 400 millimetres (16 inches) of rain fell in two hours — about the quantity normally recorded in six months in this zone.

"According to the local prefecture, the provisional death toll is seven. The seventh body has just been found," a civil protection agency spokesperson said, confirming reports in the local media.

'Water bomb'

Local authorities said they did not expect such a sudden "water bomb" that inundated the streets of several towns in the Ancona and Pesaro-Urbino provinces.

The rain and storms that started from the late hours of Thursday also lashed neighbouring Umbria.

The worst hit area was Ancona, a port city on the Adriatic, where several areas were without electricity or telephone connections.

Footage released by fire brigades showed operators navigating the streets of the seaside town Senigallia on rafters to rescue people and evacuate them, while others attempted to clear an underpass of debris.

Rescue services were still searching for survivors, authorities were quoted as saying.

Schools were closed on Friday in the affected zones.

Meanwhile, the leader of Italy's centre-left Democratic Party (PD) wrote on Twitter that it would stop its campaign in the region ahead of the September 25 national election.

SOURCE: TRTWorld and agencies