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WEATHER

Five people dead as storms batter Italy

Five people were killed and many more rescued from perilous circumstances late on Sunday when storms and heavy rainfall battered much of the Italian peninsular.

Five people dead as storms batter Italy
Five people were killed and a train was derailed as storms hit Italy on Sunday night. Photo: Screengrab/Youreporter

The storms were brought by cyclone Golia and by early evening much of Italy was in the grip of bad weather, which left five people dead.

51-year-old farmer Rocco Montorro was killed in Candinoni, Campania, when gale-force winds caused a large eucalyptus tree to fall on his car.

A 60-year-old jeweller and his wife were killed in similar circumstances after their Volvo smashed into a large tree that had fallen across the dual carriageway they were driving down near Caserta, also in Campania.

The fourth victim was an unnamed 50-year-old man, who drowned after slipping into the river Tione near Verona during the storm and was swept away by the current.

The final victim, 80-year-old Gino Francia, died after his car skidded off a slippery bridge and plummeted into the water-filled ravine below in Sant'Angelo in Pontano, Le Marche.

Many more people had to be rescued by the emergency services.

Just outside Rome, a woman and her two children, aged seven and 14, were saved from the roof of their car by the fire brigade after heavy rainfall had turned the road they were driving down into a gushing torrent.

Winds of 80 kmph were recorded in the northeast region of Veneto according to La Stampa.

A video taken in Castiglione Tuscany shows the perilous weather conditions motorists had to contend with as streets and roads were flooded.

In the Province of Biella, Piedmont, a Novarra-bound train was derailed by the heavy rainfall, however neither the driver nor the 13 passengers on board were harmed.

A video of the derailed locomotive can be seen below.

Italy's Civil Protection authority has issued further storm warnings for much of the country on Monday, predicting more violent weather across South Lombardy, Veneto, Friuli–Venezia Giulia, Emilia Romagna, Tuscany, Sardinia, Umbria, Lazio, Abruzzo and Molise.
 

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