10 dead in Italy due to harsh storms

Thick snow has also cloaked mountain regions, trapping hundreds of drivers

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The death toll from fierce storms battering Italy has risen to 10, civil protection authorities said yesterday, as wild weather swept parts of Europe, leaving motorists and tourists stranded.

Road were blocked and thousands of people were left without power in southern and central Europe, as rains and violent winds sparked flooding, tore trees from their roots and whipped debris into the air.

Thick snow has also cloaked French and Italian mountain regions, trapping hundreds of drivers in their cars and tourists in hotels.

In Italy, where Venice was inundated by near-record flooding and ferocious storms drove high winds reaching up to 180km/h in some areas, civil protection authorities announced a further five deaths, after confirming five people died on Monday.

Authorities yesterday reported a woman died when her home was engulfed by a mudslide in the northern region of Trentino, a man was killed in the northeastern region of Veneto by a falling tree, and a firefighter died during relief operations in South Tyrol.

Elsewhere, a man was killed while kitesurfing on Monday near the town of Cattolica on the Adriatic coast, with the local press saying strong winds had blown him into rocks.

The body of a man was also recovered yesterday in Lake Levico in the north, the fire department said.

A man is also missing at sea ■ off Calabria in the southwest after his boat was discovered empty washed up on rocks along the coast.

Italian media reported that around 170 people, tourists and hotel staff, were stranded by heavy snowfall at the Stelvio Pass on the Swiss border.

Meanwhile in Friuli Venezia Giulia, local authorities said some 23,000 people were without power.

Hundreds stranded

In France, more than 1,000 drivers were trapped in their cars for the night in the mountains of the Massif Central region as the roads were engulfed in snowstorms.

Another 400 had to spend the night in train carriages at the main station in the eastern city of Lyon after heavy snow blocked the tracks.

About 195,000 homes were without power across France.

Another 21,000 homes were also cut off on the Mediterranean island of Corsica, which was placed on red alert for powerful winds, shutting its airports and ports.

Reuters Migrants, part of a caravan travelling to the United States, make a human chain to pull people from the river between Guatemala to Mexico in Ciudad Hidalgo and continuing to walk in Mexico on Monday.

AFP A man stands on a destroyed yacht stranded at the harbour of Rapallo, near Genoa, after a storm hit the region and destroyed a part of the dam the night before.