FLORENCE, ITALY – Torrential rain and high winds lashed Italy Thursday killing three people. A 41-year-old man died near the Tuscan city of Lucca when his Ford Focus was hit by a rock that fell off an embankment, sources said Thursday. His female passenger was unharmed.
Two firefighting planes are battling the blaze, which is 500 meters across. In Tuscany authorities shut down parts of the E45 motorway and the Aurelia state road. In the northern Tuscan city of Prato, strong winds brought down a portion of the city’s historic defensive walls, while two fire fighters were injured – neither of them critically – when strong winds toppled a cement pole overnight near Florence.
Also in northern Tuscany, winds reaching 159km/h uprooted 200 trees surrounding the Mugello race track, where it also damaged some of the circuit equipment.
In the Marche city of Urbino, a woman was crushed to death by a tree uprooted by strong winds. She had just stepped off a bus and was walking to work when the incident took place, sources said. Also in Urbino, a 70-year-old man and a civil protection worker were injured by falling branches.