At least 38 people were yesterday reported dead and 71 missing as a result of landslides in the southern Italian region of Campania. Following six days of incessant rain, small villages in the mountainous area inland and east of Naples were torn apart late on Tuesday night by raging torrents of mud, water and debris.
With rescue work still being hampered last night by continuing rainfall, local authorities believe the death toll will rise as bodies are uncovered from under the mud-caked debris of collapsed buildings.
Among the dead were elderly residents too feeble to escape the flood waters and a young mother and her three young sons who, to the horror of helpless onlookers, were swept away by a furious, six-foot-high tide of mud in the small town of Bracigliano.
In Sarno a landslide struck the local hospital, killing at least five staff members.
The Italian Prime Minister, Mr Romano Prodi, who is in Washington for bilateral talks with President Clinton, expressed his sympathy for all the victims. Government sources confirmed that a state of emergency had been declared in the area and that a cabinet meeting scheduled for tomorrow will set aside £20 million as emergency relief funds.
Yesterday's rescue operations proved extremely difficult, as landslides had rendered many roads in the area impassable. Thousands of homes in the provinces of Avellino, Caserta and Salerno were without electricity, running water and telephone lines.
In many areas it proved impossible to move in heavy rescue machinery, leaving the 1,000-strong rescue task force overly dependent on six Italian air force helicopters, whose crews worked frantically throughout Tuesday night and yesterday morning.
As the raging flood waters streamed down from surrounding hillsides, many residents had to flee to the upper stories or rooftops of buildings. More than 1,000 people, however, managed to get away from their homes before the worst of the flooding and were last night being housed in schools and other local council buildings.
Not for the first time, Italy's civil protection authority came in for bitter criticism. It was accused of failing to predict this latest disaster in a region which has seen 631 landslides in the last 70 years.
Mr Fernando di Mezza of Italy's environmental group, Legambiente, complained: "The region is just not prepared for disasters like this. We don't even have maps to show which are the areas most at risk."
Environmentalists, Green Party deputies and local politicians in Campania all agree that yesterday's disaster is a direct consequence of illegal, wildcat building in the area.