A number of people are feared to have been killed after a mudslide triggered by heavy rains swept away homes on the island of Ischia, near Naples.
The torrent of mud and debris dislodged trees, engulfed buildings and dragged cars into the sea as it reached the coast early on Saturday.
The body of a woman was reported to have been found under the mud, and several other people are still missing.
Dozens of homes are cut off, with bad weather hampering rescuers.
Resident Lisa Mocciaro told Ansa news agency: "We started hearing loud thunder at about 03:00 (02:00 GMT), then the first landslide came down, followed by a second one around 05:00. It was horrifying."
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi told reporters the situation was "very complicated" and that the people missing were believed to be trapped under the mud. Up to 155mm (6.1in) of rain fell over the course of six hours.
Heavy rains have been battering Campania, the region surrounding Naples and Ischia, for several days. A weather warning for rainfall and strong winds is in place until Sunday.
On Thursday, two people were killed due to bad weather in the region. An Argentine tourist drowned after being swept into the sea during a coastal storm, while a man was struck by lightning on a beach.
Local authorities are urging residents to stay home to avoid hindering emergency services.
Earlier, Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini said eight people had died in the landslide, adding: "From north to south, this country needs to be protected because it is the most beautiful country in the world."
But the interior minister later said that no deaths had yet been confirmed.
Like nearby Capri, Ischia, in the Tyrrhenian Sea, is a popular holiday destination for tourists and Italians alike. Ischia featured in the popular book series Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante and was the backdrop to the 1999 film The Talented Mr Ripley.
Landslide on Italian island of Ischia kills at least 8
t least eight people have been confirmed dead after a landslide hit the Italian island of Ischia on Saturday, damaging buildings and obliterating transport infrastructure in its wake.
Five people are still missing, the governor of the Campania Prefecture office in southwest Italy told CNN Monday.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni declared a state of emergency on Sunday due to what she called "exceptional flood and landslide events," following torrential rain in the Gulf of Naples.
Videos and images shared by local and national authorities showed the destruction in Ischia's port town of Casamicciola Terme. The island lies off Italy's coast, west of the city of Naples.
The governor of Campania, Vincenzo De Luca, said in a statement on Monday that the region had allocated around $4 million "to meet the most immediate needs relating to the Ischia landslide."
He added the administration would "ensure adequate services for displaced families housed in temporary shelters."
On Sunday, the governor told a news conference that homes on Ischia that were not up to building code were partly to blame for the damage, adding they must be demolished.
The Italian government also began distributing โฌ2 million ($2.08 million) in aid and assistance to the local population affected by the landslide, according to a statement over the weekend.
parzival Many start freaking when they hear about man made climate change. I wonder what geo-engeneering is if it is not man made climate change. I have a book here...
''More than 200 million years ago, a cataclysmic event known as the Permian extinction destroyed more than 90% of all species and nearly 97% of all living things. It's origins have long been a puzzle for paleontologists. During the 1990's and the early part of this century, a great battle was fought between those who thought that death had come from above and those who thought something more complicated was at work.
Paleontologist Peter D Ward, fresh from helping prove that an asteroid had killed the dinosaurs, turned to the Permian problem and he has come to a stunning conclusion. In his investigations of the fates of several groups of mollusks during that extinction and others, he discovered that the near-total devastation at the end of the Permian period was caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide leading to a climate change. But it's not the heat (nor the humidity) that's directly responsible for the extinctions, and the story of the discovery makes for a fascinating globe spanning adventure.
In Under a Green Sky , Ward explains how the Permian extinction as well as four others happened, and describes the freakish oceans - belching poisonous gas -and sky- slightly green and always hazy- that would have attended them. Those ancient upheavals demonstrate that the threat of climate change cannot be ignored, lest the world life today -ourselves included- face the same dire fate that has overwhelmed our planet several times before.''
Copied from the jacket of the book Under a Green Sky from Dr Peter D Ward Ph. D. ( Smithsonian books, 2007 ).
The book falls right in with what Dane Wigington says in this video. In a few words, kill the oceans and the rest falls.
rising levels of carbon dioxide leading to a climate change.
I tend to think it's a temp rise that leads to co2 increase. The other way around seems to be spin by them to back up their theory that it's us, you know consuming.
Demore Indeed. It's been proven that methane acidified the oceans, killed the life in it, and oxygen was curtailed on the planet. Imagine gasping to death due to a lack of oxygen...
Comment: Update November 28
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