Baby and his grandmother among four tourists missing after severe floods hit Italy
A five-month-old baby and his grandmother are missing along with two tourists after devastating floods in Italy.
Floods have submerged towns and villages across the central Tuscany region following a spell of bad weather across Europe.
Now the baby, his grandmother and two foreign tourists have been reported missing, according to the AP news agency.
Search and rescue teams scoured the area today using divers, rescue dogs and drones in a race against time.
The baby’s parents and the grandfather were rescued from a rooftop where they had escaped.
The house where they were staying was flooded as the Pisa province was hit by heavy downpours.
Their nationality has not been confirmed.
The floods were caused by a local river after it broke its banks in Montecatini Val di Cecina in central Tuscany.
Luca Cari, a spokesperson for the fire service, told SkyTG24: ‘We always aim at finding people alive, but this accident doesn’t leave us many hopes.
‘The situation is very, very critical.’
(Picture: Vigili del Fuoco)
Local roads were forced to shut after the rainfall while 700 homes had their power cut off, Tuscany’s president Eugenio Giani said on Facebook yesterday.
He said the area has not seen such bad weather since 1928.
It comes after biblical rains and freaky weather have hit across the globe from Europe to the UK and South Africa.
More than 20 people died and thousands have been displaced after historic floods in parts of Romania, Poland, Czech Republic and Austria.
In the UK, drivers and cars were trapped after flash flooding in Bedfordshire and London yesterday. The Met Office had issued an amber weather warning for rain along with dozens of flood alerts as more than a month’s worth of rain fell in some areas.
The remaining winds of Storm Boris wreaked havoc in Luton just hours ahead of the torrential rains, launching a trampoline into the air along with clothes and debris.
Meanwhile in Cannes, France, strong floods swept away cars and people as water gushed through the streets.
Unprecedented snowfall shut down roads across South Africa, causing traffic jams and severe delays across the country.
Last week, floods caused by Storm Boris rain killed people in central and eastern Europe, including in the Kłodzko Valley and Stronie Śląskie in Poland where floods damaged a reservoir.
Italy’s northern Emilia-Romagna region was battered by floods last week as well, forcing more than 1,000 residents to flee.
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