Italy swept by heavy rainfalls, flooding

Italy has been affected by heavy rainfalls and flooding in the last 24 hours, with risk warnings issued for several regions across the country, according to local authorities and emergency services.

According to firefighters, in the central Emilia Romagna region, at least three households had to be evacuated in Bologna province after a local river burst its banks, reports Xinhua news agency.

In northwest coastal region Liguria, a 75-year-old man lost his life on Thursday after falling into a ravine in the woods due to the heavy rain, according to local media. The Agency for Environmental Protection (ARPA) in this region issued an alert for the risk of thunderstorms and exceptional rainfalls up to Friday evening.

Train networks were also partially disrupted, especially in northern Italy, with connections fully halted on Friday between Treviso and Vicenza in the Veneto region.

Regional authorities in central Tuscany declared a state of emergency for some areas of the region, such as coastal Livorno province, where at least 2,000 hectares of agricultural lands went underwater after three local rivers flooded.

In the south, at least eight households were evacuated in Naples provinces after a residential building partially collapsed due to heavy rainfalls.

The weather across Italy was forecast to remain difficult over the weekend. On Saturday, the National Civil Protection Department issued a red alert for some areas of central Emilia Romagna and an orange alert for Veneto, Calabria, Puglia, Sicily, and the rest of Emilia.

The red and the orange alerts, respectively indicate the highest and second-highest level of hydrogeological risk in the country's four-tear warning system.