Death toll from Italy's Ischia landslide rises to 11 (updated)

Minor Hotels Europe & Americas SA

01/12/2022 16:13

(Updates death toll)
       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 11 on Thursday as three more bodies
were recovered.
    The bodies of a 38-year-old woman and 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 one person still missing, with slim hopes
of finding her 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 forced the evacuation of around 300 people, a
local government official said this week. 
    Ischia, a volcanic island 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
after a 4.0-magnitude earthquake, while two other landslides in
2006 and 2009 claimed five lives in total.
    Experts and activists say Ischia is now 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;))