At least 12 people are missing and one person is confirmed dead after a devastating landslide swept through the Italian island of Ischia early Saturday morning.
Vehicles were dragged to the sea in Ischia.
The situation in Casamicciola Terme is very complicated, with people stuck under the mud, who don't answer the calls, according to Matteo Piantedosi, the interior minister.
The mayor of Naples said one death has been confirmed, but more than a dozen people are still missing.
Matteo Salvini said earlier in the day that eight people had been killed.
Poor weather conditions are making it difficult to rescue the roughly 200 people who have been ordered to leave the area.
Vehicles, furniture and trees are scattered along the Italian hillside, as muddy water swept through the island, leaving debris strewn throughout the neighborhood.
A resident on the island spoke to Italy's Ansa news outlet and said that the first slide started at 3 a.m. The rain fell in just six hours leading up to the slide. The Ischia towns of Casamicciola and Lacco Ameno were badly damaged by an earthquake five years ago.
Massimiliano Fazzini, a climate scientist at the Italian Society of Environmental Geology, said that climate is an emergency and needs to be addressed immediately. Three flooding events have hit Ischia in the past month. Climate change will lead to more extreme rain events according to scientists. According to a report from the University of Washington College of the Environment, those events could cause greater erosion and increase the risk of landslides.
The deaths are feared after homes in Ischia were washed away.
Up to a dozen people are missing after a land slide.
Landslide Ischia is a woman. Piantedosi said that there were still twelve missing. The baby and parents were saved.
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