Four people lost their lives and 20 were injured as a flash flood swept the Sunday countryside festival in Refrontolo, in the North of Italy, reports Xinhua.
“In November, a landslide had blocked this stream, and in spite of all my warnings, some of the rocks are still there, the work was not completed,” a local resident told Sky Television.
Daniele Stival, the regional councilor for civil protection of Veneto region believes that climate change may have played a part in the disaster: “Due to increasing climatic transformations, floods and landslides have become more and more frequent in many parts of Italy".
Following the many “alarm bells" sounded by recent weather phenomena, the government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi pledged on Sunday to invest more resources in “safeguard, prevention and security works,” and streamline the bureaucratic system that often impede rapid intervention.