Italy Flash Flood Kills at Least 11 Hikers in Tourist Spot as Rescuers Search Gorge for Survivors

The Telegraph - At least 11 people were killed in southern Italy when they were washed away over rocks by a raging white-water creek in a deep mountain gorge that swelled suddenly after heavy rain.

The civil protection department said 23 people were rescued and about a dozen others were hospitalised after surviving the flash flood in the narrow gorge in the Calabria region. The 11th victim died in hospital.

Spotlights were brought to the area so the search could continue overnight on Monday.

It was unclear how many people were missing but there were at least 36 hikers in two organised groups inside the  seven and a half mile long gorge, a popular aquatic trekking spot. TV images show rescuers scaling down the side of a steep rock face to bring hikers to safety.

Guides are not required, making it impossible to know how many people were on their own inside the canyon.

The nationalities of the dead and injured were not immediately known, but most tourists and trekkers who visit the country's deep south are Italian.

Television pictures showed mountain rescue squads heading from Civita, the nearest town, to reach the gorge. The most seriously injured were taken by helicopter to hospital in Cosenza.

"This gorge filled up with water in a really short space of time and these people were catapulted out like bullets. They ended up some three kilometres (two miles) down the valley," said Carlo Tansi, head of the civil protection department in Calabria.

"It is really difficult terrain, filled with obstacles because of the (geological) formation of the area," said Eugenio Facciolla, the chief prosecutor of the provincial capital, Cosenza.

He said rescuers working under spotlights were trying to locate areas where some...