Italy flooded, at least eight victims PHOTO/VIDEO

Italy flooded, at least eight victims PHOTO/VIDEO

Practically all the watercourses between Rimini and Bologna burst their banks from yesterday evening to this morning, flooding vast areas of the Romagna.

Local authorities announced that the floods affected 37 cities and towns, and that around 120 landslides were registered.

Schools will remain closed today in most of the affected municipalities, especially in the region of Bologna and Romagna.

In Modena, the ban on traffic over bridges, which was in effect during the night, will be in force today.

A bridge collapsed near Bologna, and many train services were suspended.

The Agency for Civil Protection previously warned that the rainfall is not over, and that situation is very complicated.

As a result of the storm, 50.000 people were left without electricity, ANSA announced. Due to extreme weather conditions, Formula 1 has announced that the race that was supposed to be held this weekend in Imola has been postponed.

An unprecedented amount of rain in a few hours raised the level of the rivers and caused them to overflow.

Authorities said some areas received half the average annual rainfall in just 36 hours, causing rivers to burst their banks, cascading water through cities and submerging thousands of hectares of farmland.

Minister of Civil Protection announced that he will ask the government to allocate 20 million euros for the affected area at a meeting on May 23 when relief measures will be discussed.

Faenza, part of Cesena and Forli and many other large inhabited centers ended up under water. In some areas, the water rose in a few minutes, reaching even the first floors of houses.

Eight people died who could not save themselves and were trapped in the lower floors of houses or in cars.

"Nine bodies were recovered from different locations," the president of the Emilia-Romagna region, Stefano Bonaccini, told Italian media. This is because a person who died yesterday in Cesena due to illness, before the Savio River overflowed, was added to the list of victims, ANSA said.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed "total solidarity with the affected population" yesterday in a post on Twitter and said that the government is closely monitoring the events and is ready to provide assistance.

Heavy rainfall in Emilia-Romagna followed weeks of drought that reduced the soil's water-holding capacity, exacerbating the effects of flooding.