Rescuers on Monday resumed the search
for a couple who have been reported missing after being caught
up in the extreme weather that battered southern Italy at the
weekend.
The married couple, a 67-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman,
got out of their Ford Fiesta car on Sunday when mud and flood
waters inundated the town of Scordia, near Catania, and they may
have been swept away, an eyewitness said.
The eyewitness was a motorist who was rescued by fire-fighters
after being trapped in his car by the water and mud.
Sicily, Calabria, Basilicata and Puglia remained on alert on
Monday in relation to the extreme weather, which caused rivers
to burst their banks in the provinces of Trapani and Catania on
Sunday, with torrential rain and high winds continuing to
clobber the south.
Catania Mayor Salvo Pogliese has closed the city's schools,
parks and cemeteries on Monday.
Scientists say climate change caused by human activity is making
extreme weather events more frequent and even more intense.
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