Deadly rainstorm floods Italian island

Italian news reports said a violent rainstorm that flooded entire parts of the Mediterranean island of Sardinia has claimed the lives of at least nine people and caused hundreds to evacuate. Olbia Mayor Gianni Giovanelli told news agency Sky TG24 early on Tuesday that the city had been destroyed by the "apocalyptic'' storm, with several dead and several missing, AlJazeera reported. "We're at maximum alert," Giorgio Cicalo, an official from the Civil Protection Authority in Sardinia told RAI state television. "We haven't seen a situation as extreme as this, perhaps for decades. Especially because it's been across the whole island." With water levels reaching as high as 3m the storm caused bridges to collapse as rivers swelled. The local newspaper L'Unione Sarda said the death toll was counted nine dead, including one policeman who was helping escort an ambulance when the car he was travelling in was involved in the collapse of a bridge in Dorgali. The city of Gallura was hardest hit with six dead, the newspaper reported, including three people whose car was swept away in the collapse of another bridge. In another incident, a woman and her daughter were drowned when their car was tipped on its side by the flood.