Italy’s top story on Wednesday:

Households were evacuated on floodplains in Italy’s northern Emilia Romagna region on Tuesday after the Secchia river burst its banks, according to Skytg24.

A post from the Italian fire service on X said that firefighters performed over 30 rescue operations overnight, including evacuating families trapped in their homes by floodwaters in the town of Mulazzano, near Parma.

#Maltempo #Parma, dalla notte oltre 30 interventi in provincia, le maggiori criticità: in loc. Mulazzano, per case e strutture invase dall’acqua, evacuate dai #vigilidelfuoco persone in difficoltà; in Val Termina, allagamenti per l’esondazione di un canale [#25giugno 15:00] pic.twitter.com/ByqIgNe6ac

— Vigili del Fuoco (@vigilidelfuoco) June 25, 2024

Much of northern Italy has been hit by heavy rainfall and flooding in the past couple of days, with Italy’s Civil Protection Department issuing adverse weather warnings to 10 regions.

Last May, floods in Emilia Romagna killed at least 14 people and displaced more than 20,000 others after rivers across the region burst their banks.

Stromboli volcano under orange alert for eruption risk

Italy’s Civil Protection Department on Tuesday issued an orange alert for a possible eruption of Sicily’s Stromboli volcano, raising the threat level from mild to moderate.

Since Sunday, scientists have reportedly observed a lava overflow on part of the island that shares the volcano’s name, along with “frequent explosions” in the southern crater and an “increase in the average amplitude” of volcanic tremors.

The mayor of Lipari, a neighbouring island in Sicily’s Aeolian archipelago, who is also tasked with overseeing Stromboli’s population, was being kept updated as to any developments, the department said.

The volcano last erupted in 2022, with no casualties. A 2017 eruption resulted in the death of a hiker.

Salvini announces €1 billion water plan for drought-hit Italy

Italy’s Transport and Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini on Tuesday announced he was working on passing a bill that would pump €1 billion into a National Water Plan for Italy, parts of which have suffered from severe drought in recent months.

“It is the first time that there is a national plan that deals with water not as an emergency but in the medium and long term,” the minister said in a video conference on his Strait of Messina bridge project, as reported by Ansa.

Sicily has been under a regional state of emergency for drought since February, and has repeatedly called on the Italian government to declare a national state of emergency.

Italy has had 81 extended periods of drought since May 2020 and is in a drought emergency, environmental association Legambiente said in a report published earlier this month.

More than 100 arrested in Sicily drug bust

Italy’s Carabinieri police force arrested 112 people in a major drug bust in the Sicilian city of Messina on Monday, Italian news agency Ansa reported.

The charges reportedly include the trafficking, cultivation and sale of narcotics, extortion, laundering, and criminal association.

At the request of local prosecutors, a judge issued warrants for 85 of the suspects to be immediately incarcerated, while a further 27 were placed under house arrest.

The raid coincided with simultaneous operations in nearby Calabria and other parts of Italy, dismantling several criminal gangs, police said.