Landslide sweeps house in Gorizia: one person extracted alive, two missing

A mudslide swept through a house in Brazzano di Cormons, in the Gorizia area, during the night. One person was extracted alive from the rubble by the fire brigade, assisted by Civil Defence volunteers, who are searching for two missing persons: a 35-year-old young man and an elderly woman. According to the police, 'the man was swept away while he was rescuing the woman who was trapped by the mud, although the circumstance is still to be verified. The search is continuing relentlessly,' explained the prefect of Gorizia, Ester Fedullo. 'We have cleared the entire area,' she added, 'and the rescuers are dealing with the flooding that has affected the area. I have convened a Rescue Coordination Centre in the Prefecture at 10 am to take stock of the situation".

Medical personnel sent by the Sores Fvg operations centre with several ambulances, an ambulance and a helicopter crew were also on the scene. The injured person, with a fractured leg, was transferred to the hospital in Udine.

Rescue teams and river rescuers from the Trieste and Pordenone fire brigade commands were sent in support of personnel from Udine and Gorizia. The regional Gos (Special Operations Group) was mobilised with earth-moving equipment, dog handlers and the Usar (Urban search and rescue) team from Veneto to search for missing persons under the rubble.

In the area affected by the landslide, caused by a mudslide, in Via San Giorgio in Brazzano di Cormons, the authorities have set up a red zone due to the danger of further detachments from the slope that gave way and to facilitate the work of rescuers. Several families living under the slope that collapsed have been evacuated as a precautionary measure. Fire brigade teams from all over the region are working on site to search for the missing.

The bad weather hit the area between Palmanova and the province of Gorizia hard, with the heaviest damage recorded in Cormons, where 152 millimetres of water fell in just six hours. The Judrio river overflowed, causing widespread flooding. The basements of Palmanova hospital were flooded with water: there are no problems for patients.