Storms lash Italy, Switzerland, France

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At least four people were killed as landslides triggered by torrential rain slammed into buildings on either side of the Swiss-Italian border on Sunday (Nov 16), a day after floods in southern France killed five people.

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Many landslides have recently hit northern Italy and southern Switzerland amid incessant rainfall in recent weeks.

The Italian Liguria region has been doused with as much rain in the first 15 days of November as it normally gets in an entire year.

In one heartbreaking case, rescue workers late Friday managed to drag a father from his car which was lodged on a bridge submerged by torrential rains, only to see the vehicle torn away by the raging water with his wife and two young sons still inside.

A total of 11 people have died in Italy in accidents related to the freak weather conditions in just over a month.

In addition, an estimated 70 coffins meanwhile were washed away after 50 metres of retaining wall in a cemetery in the Bolzaneto district of Genoa collapsed. Local residents reported skulls and other bones washing up on the banks of the Polcevera river.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, speaking from the G20 summit in Australia, said the havoc wreaked by the heavy rain was the result of years of neglect of infrastructure. "We have had 20 years of land management that needs to be scrapped," he said.