Cyprus Mail
EuropeWorld

Fierce cyclonic storm turns squares into lakes in southern Italy

flood sweeps through a street in the sicilian city of catania
Flood sweeps through a street in the Sicilian city of Catania

A powerful cyclonic storm hit the southern Italian island of Sicily on Tuesday causing widespread flooding around the city of Catania, turning streets and squares into rivers and lakes and causing at least two deaths, rescuers said.

A spokesman for the Misericordia group of volunteers, who are helping police and firefighters, said the body of a man was found under a car amid torrential rains sweeping the town of Gravina, north of Catania.

Contacted by Reuters, police confirmed the death without providing details.

On Monday, a 67-year-old man died after his car was hit by rising waters and mud. His wife was still missing.

The rain has inundated some of Catania’s most famous streets and squares, causing a blackout in the city centre and flooding shops. Schools have been closed in the city and in a number of nearby towns.

Floods also hit a ward at Catania’s Garibaldi hospital, media reported.

“The emergency situation is widespread and extremely critical and it does not seem to be improving,” a spokesman for the firefighters said.

Italian weather site Ilmeteo.it said parts of Sicily and the adjacent toe of Italy, Calabria, were being pounded by a rare tropical-like cyclone known as a medicane, and the sea was 8 degrees Celsius warmer than the average for this time of year.

The storm was expected to peak between Thursday and Friday, it said.

Follow the Cyprus Mail on Google News

Related Posts

Musk’s SpaceX is building spy satellite network for US intelligence agency, sources say

Reuters News Service

UN agency in Gaza says one in three children under 2 is acutely malnourished

Reuters News Service

Ukraine strikes Russian city and refinery on day two of presidential vote

Reuters News Service

Defence budgets and socioeconomic implications

CM Guest Columnist

Europe to use frozen Russian profits to arm Ukraine, Scholz says

Reuters News Service

Russia votes in election that will give Putin six more years in power

Reuters News Service