ZCZC
BFF-10
ITALY-FRANCE-WEATHER
Two dead, one missing as freak weather hits Italy, France
ROME, May 6, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Two people died and another person went
missing on Sunday as high winds and heavy rain pummelled Italy and
neighbouring France.
In Sicily, an unexpected gust of wind killed a 65-year-old German
kitesurfer on the Islands of the Stagnone nature reserve, smashing him
against a parked car as he tried to go into the sea, Italian media reported.
He was not wearing a buoyancy device or helmet despite the authorities
recently making them mandatory for kitesurfers.
A Romanian man was missing in the waters of the canal between Mincio and
Pozzolo in northern Italy after he and four of his countrymen ended up in the
water during a fishing trip.
The anglers’ car rolled into the water early on Sunday morning after they
sought shelter from the bad weather and fell asleep reportedly without the
handbrake on.
Emergency services scoured the waters in boats despite heavy rain after all
but one of the men was rescued.
In France meanwhile, a German tourist in her sixties was swept away by
waves on the island of Corsica as violent Mistral winds battered the region
with record speeds of up to 138 kilometres (85 miles) per hour, officials
said.
Up to 30 centimetres (around 12 inches) of snow fell in the Dolomite
mountains of northeastern Italy, with temperatures plunging to unseasonal
levels.
Anything above 700 metres was blanketed in white, and the avalanche warning
level was raised to three out of five.
Three French mountaineers were rescued from Monte Rosa in the Alps at
around 4,000 metres altitude as temperatures fell as low as -15 degrees
Celsius (five degrees Fahrenheit), Italian media reported.
Wind and rain further south also destroyed vineyards and greenhouses and
flooded fields in the northern regions of Lombardy and Emilia Romagna,
farmers’ union Coldiretti said.
It estimated the loss of young fruit at a sensitive time of year at
millions of euros (dollars).
BSS/AFP/MSY/0841 hrs