At least 10 people have died and four were missing in heavy rains and flooding that swept across towns and villages on Italy’s Adriatic coast, Italian news agencies ANSA and Adnkronos reported.
After six deaths were initially reported on Friday morning, the number of victims steadily climbed to 10 by the afternoon.
This is according to the prefecture in Ancona, located in the central Marche region.
The mayor of the town of Barbara near the city of Ancona spoke of a mother and her 17-year-old daughter, as well as an 8-year-old boy, who were being searched for, ANSA reported.
Throughout the night, emergency workers, including 180 firefighters and civil defence members, tried to bring people to safety in the affected areas.
Residents of the communities along the Misa river were told to either leave their homes or go to higher floors.
Amateur videos showed rivers flowing through villages, some metres high, on Thursday evening.
Entire floors were submerged and cars were swept away by floodwaters and mud. On Friday, the scene was one of devastation.
“We have apocalyptic conditions here,’’ Alessandro Piccini, mayor of Cantiano, said in a radio interview.
“God helps us,’’ the mayor of Barbara, Riccardo Pasqualini, wrote on Facebook.
Because of the damage, the electricity supply went down frequently in many places, and the telephone and mobile phone networks also broke down often.
The government of the province of Ancona explained that the floods were a result of the persistent rainfall in the afternoon.
After months of drought and dryness, meteorologists said as much rain had fallen in a few hours as normally falls in half a year.
“Such rainfall could not have been foreseen,’’ said Stefano Aguzzi of the Marche region civil defence force.
The President of Marche, Francesco Acquaroli, wrote on Facebook that the “very serious meteorological crisis’’ in the region was a cause for extreme concern.
The mayor of the coastal town of Senigallia, Massimo Olivetti, decreed that schools, kindergartens, sports facilities and other public institutions would remain closed until Saturday. (dpa/NAN)
