|
BBC News
 The
Swiss village of Gondo was sliced in two by the landslide
Torrential
rain and mudslides that have killed at least 12 people,
with 30 more missing, are continuing to cause serious problems
in the European Alps.
Schools and factories are closed in the northern industrial
city of Turin with 16 of its bridges impassable.
Up to
30,000 people in mountain villages around Turin were without
electricity, the power company Enel said
The
Italian Government has declared a state of emergency in
the north with more flooding expected.
In the
mountainous region of Val d'Aosta bridges have been swept
away and 1,000 people are homeless.
Eight
thousand people have been evacuated from the Piedmont area.
Knocking
sounds
Across
the border in Switzerland rescuers are continuing to try
to reach a woman trapped under rubble in Gondo, the village
worst hit the floods.
"The
rescuers heard knocking sounds and later also cries. We
hope she is still alive," said Valais cantonal police
spokesman Markus Rieder.
 Army
and civilian rescuers with sniffer dogs in the village are
still searching for 13 missing people.
Gondo
was sliced in two by a 40 metre wide landslide on Saturday.
About
10 buildings were swept away. More than 1,500 people have
been evacuated from the area by helicopter.
The
rescuers there, who resumed their search for the missing
on Sunday afternoon after conditions improved, have found
the body of a woman, the second known victim in Switzerland.
'Flood of the century'
People
living in several other villages in the Swiss canton of
Valais were evacuated, as well as from some districts of
the town of Brig, on the river Rhone, where two people are
missing.
"We've
never seen the Rhone like that," said one resident.
"It's the flood of the century."
 A
car surfaces in Ivrea, northern Italy
The
Simplon pass which links Brig with Italy has been closed
and there are no rail services. The town was totally cut-off
on Sunday night.
The
emergency services in northern Italy are hopeful the rains
are subsiding but already it is thought that there has been
hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of damage.
|
