ROME: A man in northwestern Italy was killed Monday in a flash flood caused by heavy rains, the authorities announced, adding that extreme weather events were becoming more frequent.
The 70-year-old man was hit by a torrent of water and mud after he got out of his van in the alpine town of Bardonecchia in the region of Piedmont, located some 90 kilometres (56 miles) west of Turin near the French border.
“We are increasingly faced with emergency situations due to weather events that we used to call exceptional but are now more and more frequent,“ said the president of the region, Alberto Cirio, on social media.
“Today a water bomb hit the town of Bardonecchia suddenly, causing damage and unfortunately a victim,“ he said.
The town’s mayor had warned residents in the afternoon not to leave their homes or approach bridges, as sudden bad weather caused the Frejus waterway to break its banks.
Video images showed churning black water rushing down the waterway, sending up plumes of water and mud over its banks.
Local media identified the man as a 70-year-old resident of Bardonecchia, a resort town which hosted snowboarding events during the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.
Firefighters rescued at least 10 people trapped by the waters, as well as a handful stuck in their cars, media reported.
The disaster struck nearly two years after a similar episode in Bardonecchia in which heavy rains caused two streams, including the Frejus, to overflow, causing a major mudslide that swept away cars and debris.
There were no fatalities in the 2023 disaster.
The heavy rains in the northwest came as much of Italy — and Europe — was suffering from a heatwave.
Scientists say that climate change is fuelling such extreme weather events, which they say will continue to become even more frequent.
