SAN REMO,
Italy (AP) -- Civil protection services went on full alert Friday
after mudslides killed at least four people and hundreds more
had to be evacuated from their homes amid heavy rains in the Italian
region of Liguria.
Rescue teams
found the bodies of a married couple buried under bricks and mud
near San Remo on the Italian Riviera, the country's northwest
coast. Digging through the mud continued in case others might
be missing. The region, on Italy's northwestern coast, was still
being lashed by heavy rains.
A French truck
driver died Thursday night when his vehicle was buried by a mudslide
near a toll gate on a highway connecting northwestern Italy to
France. Another man was killed when a wall collapsed on him after
water and mud swept through a street in the town of Imperia on
Thursday night.
In San Remo,
a town renowned for its usually mild climate and flower-lined
streets, authorities ordered 250 people to leave their homes after
downpours threatened to flood the banks of the San Francesco river.
A few miles
away, in Imperia, schools were closed and travel was disrupted.
About 70 patients were evacuated from a hospital as a precaution.
With stormy
conditions set to continue throughout northern Italy until Sunday,
authorities also declared emergencies in the regions of Piedmont
and Lombardy.
Two weeks
ago, four people were killed by mudslides near Imperia and scores
of people were forced to evacuate their homes. And last month,
rains and floods devastated parts of southern Switzerland and
northern Italy, killing at least 35 people.
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