Italy: severe flooding in the Lake Como area

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Torrential rain and hailstorm in Italy caused floods and mudslides in the north of the country on Tuesday. Towns around Italy's Lake Como were especially hit, in yet another example of extreme weather phenomenon that an agricultural lobby said on Tuesday has intensified in recent years. Italian firefighters carried out more than 60 rescues after storms wreaked havoc around the picturesque lake ringed by mountains in northern Italy. They included bringing to safety an elderly woman blocked in her home, as well as a person with a disability and a caregiver isolated by a landslide. No deaths or injuries were reported. In Brienno, on the lake's western shore and the hardest-hit town, 50 residents were blocked in their homes when a landslide caused a gas leak. And further south in Cernobbio, firefighters evacuated a condominium threatened with flooding. In Cernobbio, a city 40 km (25 miles) north of Milan, trees fell into the river and part of the road fell with them. On Monday, hailstones the size of tennis balls temporarily closed a highway in the same region and damaged dozens of cars.

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