Three people dead, several missing after heavy rains, flooding in Tuscany

Rome: At least three people have died and several were missing after rivers overflowed due to heavy rains in central Italy, local authorities said on Friday, as Storm Ciaran continued to lash western Europe.

A bridge collapsed near the city of Pistoia, killing two people. Another person died in the town of Rosignano.

"Over 200 millimetres of rain have fallen in three hours," Luigi D'Angelo, who is leading the Civil Protection rescue efforts, told Sky TG24 television.

The governor of Tuscany said there were challenging issues around two large rivers in the area, the Bisenzio, north of Florence, and the Ombrone, in the southern part of the region.

"The situation is problematic, the Arno river is expected to reach a peak around midday in Florence, but there are no particular worries about this if it stops raining," Governor Eugenio Giani said in an interview with RAI's Radio Anch'io.

Patients from three separate hospitals had to be moved to other facilities and many buildings were seriously damaged, Giani added.

The defence ministry was supporting rescue efforts sending helicopters, trucks and water pumps to the flood-hit areas, Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said in a statement.

Italy's Civil Protection agency on Thursday issued a warning of heavy rains and strong winds in central and southern Italy, with a high alert "red code" for Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia in the north of the country, and a medium alert "orange code" for nine other regions.

Another person went missing in the Veneto region, the local governor was quoted as saying by Sky TG24.

Storm Ciaran, which follows on the heels of Storm Babet two weeks ago, was driven by a powerful jet stream that swept in from the Atlantic, unleashing heavy rain and furious winds that have already caused heavy flooding in Northern Ireland, parts of Britain, Belgium and France.