In the search for persons thought to be missing after a massive landslide tore through a port town on the Italian tourist island of Ischia, rescuers combed through mud and debris for a second day on Sunday.
Two families with children were still unaccounted for among the 11 missing in the port town of Casamicciola on Saturday, and it is believed that they are buried beneath debris and muck that, according to firefighters, is six meters (20 feet) deep in some spots.
Landslides were still a possibility in the area of town that was located the farthest up the mountain, close to where heavy rains had loosened a section of the mountainside and necessitated search teams entering on foot.
While diving teams were brought in to inspect automobiles that had been forced into the water, small bulldozers worked overnight to clear roadways so that rescue trucks could pass.
According to the LaPresse news agency, Claudio Palomba, the prefect of Naples, stated on Sunday that there were officially 11 people missing, four people injured, and 160 people forced to leave their houses. He said that the mudslide had destroyed 15 dwellings.
Exceptional rainfall caused the catastrophic landslide early on Saturday morning, which sent a mass of mud and debris racing down a mountainside toward the port of Casamicciola and caused buildings to collapse and vehicles to be swept into the water. 164 people were still without a place to live as of Sunday.
In one highly watched video, a man was seen holding on to a shutter while chest-deep in murky water and covered in mud.
According to officials, the island experienced its greatest rainfall in 20 years with 126 millimetres (almost five inches) of rain falling in only six hours. According to experts, development in high-risk regions on the mountainous island compounded the calamity.
During a Sunday emergency Cabinet meeting, the Italian government declared a state of emergency for the island and set aside 2 million euros for the rescue effort and the restoration of public services.
In 2017, a 4.0-magnitude earthquake that struck the island left two people dead and more than 40 injured in the towns of Casamicciola and Lacco Ameno.
