Bodies retrieved from flooded Sicily house

Italian authorities said Sunday the bodies of the family, including those of three children aged one, three and 15, were found in their house in Casteldaccia next to a small river which had burst its banks. Three other members of the same family managed to escape, according to local rescue officials.

Giovanni Di Giacinto, mayor of Casteldaccia, said the discovery of the bodies was an "immense tragedy," Italian news agency ANSA reported.

In a separate incident, a man was found dead in his car. At least two other people around the Sicilian capital, Palermo, are reportedly missing.

One of those missing is a 40-year-old doctor who was forced to abandon his car near Corleone after trying to reach the hospital there.

Heavy flooding on the Mediterranean island has wreaked havoc, prompting the closure of a number of roads and forcing officials to shut schools, public parks and underpasses. Troops were deployed Sunday to check the condition of the main roads.

Read more: Italy's flooding crisis eases, leaving trail of death and destruction

A 'complex meteorological situation'

Italy has been hit hard by a series of storms that have claimed at least 30 lives over the past week and caused massive damage. The country's north, including in and around Venice, has been particularly affected, with millions of trees uprooted and villages cut off.  

"It's like after an earthquake," said the governor of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia. "Thousands of hectares of forest were razed to the ground, as if by a giant electric saw."

On Friday, a 62-year-old German woman was hit by a bolt of lightning while walking with her husband and son on San Pietro, a smaller island near Sardinia.

Italian authorities have described the weather conditions as "one of the most complex meteorological situations of the past 50 to 60 years."

shs, rs/ng (dpa, AFP)