One Feared Dead As Floods Destroy Towns In Italy

Agency report

A man was swept away by a swollen river near Turin in the flooding caused by torrential rain in northern Italy.

The elderly man was tending to horses in Perosa Argentina, a small town in the foothills of the Alps west of Turin, when the bank of the river gave way.

People run for safety

Several hundreds of people had to be evacuated from their homes and many roads. Some were also evacuated from schools and businesses across the northwestern regions of Piedmont and Liguria.

Production of Nutella and other chocolate treats was stopped at Ferrero Rocher’s factory in Alba. This was done as a precautionary measure because of the high level of the nearby Tanaro river.

The Po was a metre (3.25 feet) above its danger level in Turin. And most bridges in the city had been closed on safety grounds.

Two boats normally used for tourist trips were ripped from their moorings and drifted downstream before coming to rest against a bridge.

Heavy rain is expected to continue over the weekend. And the rising waters have revived painful memories of 1994. Seventy people were killed by flooding in the region that year.