Death toll from Italy's Ischia landslide rise to 10

Minor Hotels Europe & Americas SA

01/12/2022 12:00

ROME, Dec 1 (Reuters) - The death toll from a landslide
that devastated a small town on the southern Italian holiday
island of Ischia rose to 10 on Thursday, as two more bodies were
recovered.
    The bodies of two men aged 38 and 31 were found and
identified, the Prefecture of Naples, a local branch of the
interior ministry, said in a statement.  
    The discovery left two people still missing, with slim hopes
of finding them alive after last weekend's disaster. Three
children, including a baby less than one month old, are among
the other confirmed victims. 
    A wave of mud, debris and stones broke away from Ischia's
highest mountain on Saturday, following torrential rain, and
crashed down over houses and roads in and around the small town
of Casamicciola Terme.
    The landslide has forced the evacuation of around 300
people, a local government official said this week. 
    Ischia, a volcanic island which lies some 30 km (19 miles)
from Naples, is famous for its thermal baths and picturesque
coastline. But it is also especially vulnerable to natural
disasters.
    In the same Casamicciola Terme, two people died in 2017
following a 4.0-magnitude earthquake, while two other
landslides, which happened in 2006 and 2009, claimed five lives
in total.
    Experts and activists say Ischia is even more at risk from
natural disasters due to a high proportion of illegal buildings,
though local politicians insist that the island's biggest
problem is a failure to work on landslide prevention measures.
 (Reporting by Alvise Armellini and Elvira Pollina, editing by
Keith Weir)
 ((alvise.armellini@thomsonreuters.com;))