10 people killed and several missing in flooding in Italy

Floodwaters triggered by heavy rainfall sweep through towns in a hilly region of central-east Italy.

Floodwaters triggered by heavy rainfall have swept through several towns in a hilly region of central-east Italy, leaving 10 people dead and several missing, according to state radio.

Dozens of survivors scrambled onto rooftops or up trees to await rescue early on Friday.

“It wasn’t a water bomb, it was a tsunami,” Barbara Mayor Riccardo Pasqualini told Italian state radio, describing the sudden downpour on Thursday evening that devastated his town in the Marche region near the Adriatic Sea.

While firefighters said seven deaths were confirmed and three people were missing, RAI state radio said there were 10 confirmed deaths.

Two children, including one swept out of his mother’s arms by rushing waters in Barbara were among four people still unaccounted for by late Friday morning.

A mother and her daughter, aged about 8, who were trying to escape the floodwaters were missing in Barbara, the mayor told the Italian news agency ANSA.

Many of the 300 firefighters deployed waded through waist-high water in flooded streets, while others operated rubber dinghies to scoop up survivors along their path.

Firefighters said on Twitter that they had rescued dozens of people from cars, rooftops and clinging to trees. Helicopters were also deployed to pluck people to safety in the more remote towns.

MILAN, Sept 16 (Reuters) - At least eight people have been killed by torrential overnight rains and floods in the central Italian region of Marche, authorities said on Friday, as rescuers continued to search for four people missing.

Around 400 millimetres of rain fell within two to three hours, inundating the streets of several towns around the region's capital Ancona on the Adriatic coast.

"It was like an earthquake," Ludovico Caverni, the mayor of the town of Serra Sant'Abbondio, told RAI state radio.

Report an ad Footage released by fire brigades showed rescuers on rafts trying to evacuate people in the seaside town of Senigallia, while others attempted to clear an underpass of debris.

People work to clear way after heavy rain and deadly floods hit the central Italian region of Marche, in Cantiano, Italy, September 16, 2022. REUTERS/Yara Nardi

Stefano Aguzzi, head of civil protection at Marche's regional government, said the downpour was far stronger than had been forecast.

"We were given a normal alert for rain, but nobody had expected anything like this," he told reporters.

The head of the national civil protection agency Fabrizio Curcio was heading to Ancona to assess the damage, while party chiefs campaigning for Italy's Sept. 25 election expressed their solidarity.

Enrico Letta, leader of the centre-left Democratic Party said it would suspend campaigning in Marche "in a sign of mourning" and in order to allow its local activists to fully participate in efforts to help the flood-hit communities.

(Agencies)