Five dead, eight missing in Italy storms

Five people have died and eight are missing after torrential rain hit Italy's Tuscany and Liguria regions overnight Wednesday. Rivers burst their banks and landslides devastated villages, local authorities said.

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The worst-hit areas were the Spezia region and the Cinque Terre (Five Lands) tourist destination, where four people died.

A woman's body was also recovered from a mountainous part of northern Tuscany.

Between 200 and 500 millimetres of rain fell in just a few hours, causing rivers to burst their banks, tearing down bridges and sending landslides and floods sweeping through several villages.

Two tourists who were reported missing in Vernazza, one of the five villages in Cinque Terre, were found safe and sound.

And monks from a nearby monastery rescued residents of Borgetto Vara and Brugnato, giving shelter, food and dry clothes to around 30 people.

As further rain hampered rescue work, local authorities asked residents not to go out or to use private cars.

The bad weather was expected to spread to the rest of Italy on Wednesday. Rome's Mayor Gianni Alemanno placed firefighters and rescue services on alert although the capital appeared mid morning to have escaped the worst of the rain.