Two people have died in northern Italy after a mudslide cascaded through a town and turned roads into rivers.
Extreme rainfall on Monday caused widespread flooding and mud to flow through the streets in Brazzano di Cormons, in the province of Gorzia near Trieste.
The bodies of an 83-year-old woman and 32-year-old man were reportedly found on Tuesday after they were declared missing.
The identities of the two people have not been released by authorities but local media reported the man was German and was checking on his elderly neighbour when the mudslide hit.
“Firefighters found the body of one of the two people missing in the landslide that hit a house in Cormons under the rubble,” local fire services wrote on social media.
Later, the body of a missing woman was also found.
About 10 inches of rain fell in approximately eight hours, causing the Torre river to overflow its banks and send mud into the streets, destroying three homes.
The town’s mayor, Roberto Felcaro, said an estimated 300 people had been evacuated.
“[The rain] brought our community to its knees,” he wrote on social media, adding the rain caused “serious damage and problems throughout our territory”.
“There is a massive presence of law enforcement, firefights, and civil protection agencies working tirelessly,” he said.
On Monday, rescuers pulled a man to safety from under destroyed homes as local media reported he was sent to hospital with a broken leg.
Video footage on social media shows much of the area submerged by water and weather alerts have been issued across northern Italy because of bad weather.
Parts of Friuli Venezia Giulia in Italy’s north eastern region were also affected by the extreme weather, as it caused widespread damage and major disruptions.
Emilia Romagna, Liguria, Lombardy, Tuscany and Umbria are all under high alert following a night of downpours.
Schools in Cormons shut and about 300 residents in Versa were forced to evacuate after the Torre River flooded.
Some locals had to climb onto the roofs of their houses or out of windows to escape the water.
In October, the UK was warned by climate advisers it needed to be prepared for “unprecedented” extreme weather conditions as worst-case scenarios for global warming cannot be ruled out.
Events like heatwaves, droughts, wildfires and flooding - which the UK has already started to see with increasing frequency - will only become more regular and intense, the independent Climate Change Committee (CCC) said.
The group has urged the government to ensure the country is prepared for at least 2C of global warming by 2050, which is 0.5C higher than the long-term 1.5C temperature goal of the international climate treaty, the Paris Agreement.
