Italy’s interior minister said on Saturday that 12 people were missing after a landslide on the island of Ischia, off Naples, but no deaths had been confirmed.
Heavy rainfall caused a landslide early Saturday in the town of Casamicciola Terme, in the north of the island.
Several Italian media quoted Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who gave a death toll of eight, which was denied by the Minister of the Interior.
“At this precise moment, no death is confirmed,” said Matteo Piantedosi, while pointing out that the situation could still evolve.
He reported twelve missing and people trapped under the mud.
Thirteen people were missing at the end of the morning, according to the Italian news agencies ANSA and AGI.
“No body has been found yet,” said a local Naples official, Claudio Palomba, quoted by the AGI news agency.
The landslide “buried a house” and pushed several cars into the sea, the fire department said, adding that they were looking for the missing.
A car was swept into the sea with two people on board, but they were rescued, firefighters said.
At least 30 families are trapped in their homes by mud, without water or electricity, the ANSA news agency said, adding that the road leading to their neighborhood was cut off by the mudslide and debris.
Local authorities have urged residents of the island to stay at home, so as not to interfere with rescue operations.
Casamicciola Terme, a spa resort with 8,000 inhabitants in winter, suffered an earthquake in 2017 that killed two people. It had, however, been completely destroyed by a much more powerful earthquake at the end of the 19th century.