At least seven people, including a newborn baby and two children, were killed on the southern Italian holiday island of Ischia after a landslide caused by torrential rain devastated a small town, an official said on Sunday.
Five people were still missing, Naples prefect Claudio Palomba told a news conference. Dozens of emergency workers rushed to the island while rescue divers searched the waters off the coast, he said.
Photographs and aerial video showed buildings smashed by the landslide and several cars pushed into the sea by what one resident described as "a waterfall of water and mud".Densely populated, Ischia is a volcanic island which lies some 30 km from Naples. It draws visitors to its thermal baths and picturesque coastline.
Statistics show Ischia has a large number of houses that were built illegally, putting inhabitants at permanent risk from flooding and earthquakes - which have often hit the hilly island over the past years. "People must understand that they can't live in some areas and buildings in risky areas must be torn down," Campania governor Vincenzo De Luca told state broadcaster RAI on Sunday.
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