10 people, including a family of nine, have died in floods around Palermo on the southern Italian island of Sicily, rescue services said on Sunday.State radio said nine of those victims were in a home that was flooded by a rapidly swelling river in the countryside near Palermo.
The radio report said one man survived the house flood late Saturday night by clinging to a tree. The survivor used his cellphone to call for help.The victims were from 2 families who had gathered in the villa for the weekend.
State TV also said two people were killed by the storm in the outskirts of Agrigento, a Sicilian tourist town famed for its ancient Greek temples.If confirmed, those deaths would raise the overall death toll in Sicily to 12.

Storms had battered northern Italy earlier in the week, killing at least 15 people, uprooting millions of trees near Alpine valleys and leaving several Italian villages without electricity or road access for days.