AT least 12 people have been killed after storms caused torrential floods in Sicily.
Divers pulled nine bodies from a home flooded by a rapidly swelling river in the countryside near Palermo.
State TV said the home’s sole survivor of the flood was the owner, who had gone outside to walk his dogs when the torrent struck.
The man reportedly clung to a tree, then ended up on the roof of a nearby house and used his phone to call for help, but it was too late.
The victims included a one-year-old baby, a three-year-old child and a teenager.
A man’s body was also found on a guardrail along a Palermo road after floodwaters swept away his car, according to reports.
Across the island, in the town of Cammarata, the fire department said divers were working to recover the bodies of two people swept away while driving on a road near the Saraceno River.
Also in Agrigento province, firefighters rescued 14 people from a hotel in the town of Montevago, which was threatened by floodwaters from the Belice River.
At least two other people in Sicily are missing.
Other storms had battered northern Italy earlier in the week, killing at least 15 people.
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