Climate: Man missing as extreme weather batters north Italy

(ANSA) - TURIN, SEP 5 - A 58-year-old man is missing, feared dead, after the tractor he was using was swept away on Thursday by flash floods at Feletto, near Turin, after a wave of violent storms and torrential rain battered northern Italy, hitting Piedmont and Lombardy especially hard.
    A wheel of the vehicle was visible at the time of writing, overturned in muddy water, after a river burst its banks.
    Firefighters have been at work since dawn on Thursday in the city of Turin and in areas of Val di Susa and Val Chisone, at 700 metres of altitude, after the Gerdardo river overflowed and a bridge collapsed.
    According to preliminary information, 20 people remained isolated in the area while 30 others were cut off in the little town of Santa Petronilla near Bussoleno when another river overflowed, flooding the 24 provincial road.
    Violent storms in Val Chisone flooded more provincial roads in Perosa Argentina and Villar Perosa.
    There was also widespread flooding in the Milan area, with the Seveso, Olona and Lambro rivers overflowing.
    Services on the city's M2 metro line between Famagosta and Assago had to be suspended as a result and, for the first time since it was founded in 1976, the Radio Popolare station stopped broadcasting because its transmission centre was inundated with water..
    Scientists say the climate crisis caused by human greenhouse gas emissions is making extreme weather events such as heatwaves, droughts, supercharged storms and flooding more frequent and more intense.
    Southern Italy is current suffering a severe drought, which is causing massive problems, especially in Sicily and Sardinia.
    Although there are many sources of the greenhouse gases that are causing global heating, the main driver is the burning of fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal, sales of which generate huge profits for the world's energy giants. (ANSA).