Children among seven fatalities in Italian landslide

At least seven people have died — including a 3-week-old boy and a 5- and 11-year-old pair of siblings — in a landslide on the Italian resort island of Ischia.

Five people were still missing and feared buried under the mass of mud and debris that hurtled down a mountainside and straight into the populous port city of Casamicciola early Saturday. Buildings collapsed and vehicles were shoved into the sea after heavy rainfall triggered the massive slide.

The baby boy’s parents were also killed, as were a 31-year-old resident of the island and a Bulgarian tourist. Small bulldozers were deployed to clear roads so that rescue vehicles could pass through, while dive teams searched cars that had plunged underwater.

“We are continuing the search with our hearts broken, because among the missing are also minors,” Giacomo Pascale, the mayor of the neighboring town of Lacco Ameno, told broadcaster RAI.

Officials said nearly 5 inches of rain had drenched the island in just six hours, the heaviest rainfall in 20 years. The mountainside collapsed just before dawn on Saturday. Thirty homes were flooded and more than 200 people displaced, officials said Sunday.

“Mud and water tend to fill every space,” Italian firefighter spokesman Luca Cari told RAI.

“Our teams are searching with hope, even if it is very difficult. Our biggest hope is that people identified as missing have found refuge with relatives and friends and have not advised of their position.”

With News Wire Services