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Como - Firemen evacuated 80 residents late Thursday after after a series of landslides hit Italy's picturesque northern Lake Como, where movie star George Clooney has a holiday villa. The cause of the landslides was not immediately clear.

The residents were removed by boat after roads were blocked by no less than seven landslides. The biggest occurred in the Brienno area of the lake, where passengers inside a bus and a car escaped unharmed after a landslide hit their vehicles causing them to veer off the road.

An ancient Roman bridge and an abandoned house were reduced to rubble by the landslides and another dwelling and several vehicles were reported to have been damaged.

Authorities closed a local highway in both directions after the landslides, causing tailbacks over 10 kilometres long.

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