A landslide engulfed buildings during heavy rain on the southern Italian holiday island of Ischia on Saturday, and there was confusion among government ministers over the death toll.
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said that no deaths had been confirmed. However Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini said earlier during an event in Milan that eight people had been killed.
Torrential rain hit the port of Casamicciola Terme, one of the six small towns on the island, in the early hours of Saturday, triggering flooding and bringing down buildings."At the moment there are no confirmed deaths, there are some difficulties in the rescue operations because the weather conditions are still challenging", Piantedosi told reporters in Rome.Ischia is a volcanic island around 30 km from Naples that draws visitors to its thermal baths and picturesque coastline.
"The government expresses its closeness to the citizens and mayors of the municipalities on the island of Ischia and thanks the rescuers engaged in the search for the missing", she said. The south of Italy, where houses are often built illegally in unsafe areas, is susceptible to fatal landslides. In 1998 at least 150 people were killed when mud submerged the village of Sarno, also not far from Naples.
Reporting by Sara Rossi, Gianluca Semeraro and Angelo Amante Writing by Gavin Jones Editing by Louise Heavens and Frances Kerry
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