Rescue teams in Italy are searching for missing people after a massive mudslide hit the island of Ischia near Naples, destroying homes and dragging cars into the sea.
Three people have been confirmed dead. Several others are missing.
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantidossi said more than 100 firefighters, as well as divers and earth-moving units, had been deployed to Ischia.
The landslide occurred in southern Italy after several days of continuous rain.
Two days later, wrecked cars could be seen piled on top of each other, crushed by the landslide.
Workers have arrived in excavators and are trying to clear the streets of debris and mud. But the damage seems significant.
Like nearby Capri, Ischia, in the Tyrrhenian Sea, is a popular holiday destination for tourists and Italians alike. It is part of Elena Ferrante’s popular book series Napoleon Novels and was the setting for the 1999 film The Talented Mr. Ripley.
However, a major problem on the island is that almost half of the houses are built illegally – and therefore cannot withstand the force of landslides and earthquakes.
Civil protection minister Nello Mussumi told JEE News that Italy needed a “national climate change adaptation plan” to ensure buildings and infrastructure could withstand increased events such as heavy rains. “Securing our region is the biggest public task we have to complete in the next few years. If we don’t do it, we’re going to be mourning more people,” he said.
The government has approved a state of emergency, allocating an initial sum of €2m (£1.7m) to help rebuild homes.
Officials say that they have recovered the bodies of three people so far.
A woman in her 30s, whose husband is still missing, calls out to her father for help as a large chunk of land begins to crumble from the mountain, but he is unable to reach her because of the mud around the house. By the time rescue services managed to get out of the wreckage, the woman was already dead.
An elderly woman’s body was also found on Sunday, along with a five- or six-year-old girl whose parents, brother and uncle are reportedly missing.
Residents are being urged to stay indoors so that emergency services are not hampered in their efforts.
Up to 155mm (6.1in) of rain fell on Ischia over six hours, causing landslides on Saturday morning.
