(ANSA) Naples, June 16 - A fierce thunderstorm and gusting
winds struck this port city Monday, sending café tables and
chairs flying, severing yacht moorings and cracking walls in a
building hit by lightning, firefighter said.
Several streets near Naples' main Poggioreale prison were
flooded including one linking the penitentiary to the Palace of
Justice courthouse, preventing transfer of suspects from the
Camorra, the Neapolitan version of the Mafia, to stand trial.
Emergency service telephones were jammed with requests for
help from firefighters, traffic was snarled even more than
usual, trees toppled and flower pots tumbled from balconies in
the smart Vomero hillside district overlooking the Bay of
Naples.
The central Garibaldi station of the underground Metro
system was closed due to flooding of tracks requiring draining
while traffic proceeded at a crawl on the state highway 268
linking the city to Herculaneum, Pompeii and the rash of other
towns nestling under the shadow of the Vesuvius volcano.
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