Rescuers Search For Missing After Deadly Landslide On Italian Island

Casamicciola Terme, Italy, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Nov, 2022 ) :Italian rescuers were searching for a dozen missing people on the southern island of Ischia on Sunday after a landslide killed at least one and the government declared a state of emergency.

A wave of mud and debris crashed through the small town of Casamicciola Terme on Saturday morning, engulfing at least one house and sweeping cars down to the sea, local media and emergency services said.

A first tranche of two million Euros ($2 million) of relief funds was released at the end of an emergency cabinet meeting which declared the state of emergency, said Minister for Civil Protection Nello Musumeci.

More than 200 rescuers were still searching for a dozen missing people, while hundreds of volunteers and others, up to their knees in mud, were busy cleaning the town's streets.

Rescuers had recovered the body of a 31-year-old woman, according to Italian news agency AGI, with other local media reporting 13 people had been injured.

The rescue effort was hampered by rain and high winds, which also delayed ferries bringing reinforcements from the mainland.

"It's a situation that hurts us, if only for the people who disappeared under the mountain. Here it's an island and even if we don't really know everyone, it's almost that," Salvatore Lorini, 45, told AFP.

"The mountain came down, there was devastation of shops, cars, hotels and that was already happening nine years ago. Now I am cleaning my mother-in-law's shop," he said.