'The entire hill is collapsing': Landslide in Sicily causes homes to fall off cliff edge, 1,500 evacuated

Heavy rain has tiggered a landslide in southern Sicily causing the edge of a town to collapse and forcing the evacuation of more than 1,500 people.

On Wednesday, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni visited the town of Niscemi, where dozens of houses were left teetering on the edge of a cliff after the ground beneath collapsed.

Some structures and cars have already tumbled 20m onto the plain below.

The landslide has grown to span 2.5 miles (4km), with authorities designating a 150-metre-wide "no go zone" around the town.

Niscemi residents with homes in the area, facing the city of Gela, will have to find long-term alternative accommodation as the ground continues to shift, authorities said.

Italy's civil protection chief Fabio Ciciliano said some residents will never be able to return to their homes due to parts of the town of about 25,000 people becoming "uninhabitable".

"The entire hill is collapsing onto the plain of Gela," he said.

"To be honest, there are houses located on the edge of the landslide that obviously can no longer be inhabited, so we need to work with the mayor to find a permanent relocation for these families."

Ms Meloni viewed the landslide from a helicopter, and met with local and regional officials at the town hall.

The federal government declared Sicily, Sardinia and Calabria to be in a state of emergency on Monday and set aside an initial €100m (£86.9m) in support.

Sicilian regional officials estimated on Wednesday that the overall damage bill stood at €2bn euros (£1.74bn).

Located 120 miles (195km) from Palermo on a ⁠plateau that authorities say is gradually collapsing toward the plain below, Niscemi is no stranger to landslides.

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The town was built on layers of sand and clay that are particularly permeable in heavy rain and have shifted before, notably in a major 1997 landslide that forced the evacuation of 400 people.

"Today, the situation is repeating itself with even more significant characteristics: the landslide front extends for about four kilometres, and directly affects the houses facing the slope," Giovanna Pappalardo, professor of applied geology at Sicily's University of Catania, said.

The latest landslide began on Sunday as Cyclone Harry battered southern Italy, and has sparked criticism that houses should not have been built in the area because of the risk of landslides.

The opposition centre-left Democratic Party leader, Elly Schlein, has called for Ms Meloni's government to redirect the €1bn (£869m) earmarked for a controversial bridge from Sicily to the Italian mainland to rebuilding the storm hit region.

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