6 dead, including an entire family in Italy storm

Six people were reported dead Sunday after a massive storm front brought torrential rains, flooding and mudslides to Italy's central region of Tuscany overnight.

"Four deceased persons found in basement flat, a fifth person deceased (in a separate location of the flat)," firefighters tweeted Sunday morning in reference to the Tuscan city of Livorno, where according to the mayor, the storm dumped 200 millimeters of rain in six hours.

The victims include a couple, their four-year-old son, and the child's grandfather. The sole survivor is the couple's three-year-old daughter, public broadcaster RAI reported.

The family became trapped when their flat flooded. The grandfather, who lived on an upper floor, managed to bring the little girl to safety, returned to try to save the rest of the family, and perished, local media reported.

A sixth person died in a car crash in Livorno, La Repubblica newspaper reported. Firefighters also tweeted that a search is ongoing for three people who went missing.

Livorno Mayor Filippo Nogarin said the city was caught unprepared, and blamed the Civil Protection Agency for issuing an orange but not a red alert. An orange alert means "intense weather that is dangerous to people and things".

"It is useful to recall that flood and landslide alerts (on three levels: red, orange and yellow) can include a series of damages to the territory," according to the Civil Protection Agency website.

"Many families were literally overwhelmed by the floods, which occurred overnight," the mayor told RAI. "The city is devastated," Nogarin said.

Televised footage of Livorno showed rivers of mud invading submerged streets, cars piled on top of each other, downed trees, and residents wading through knee-high water.

The storm front, which is moving south, also brought a violent downpour to Rome, where streets flooded, subways were shut down, and city officials urged residents not to leave their homes.

The Campania region south of Rome, where Naples is located, is also on orange alert and Campania Governor Vincenzo De Luca is closely monitoring the situation as the storm front moves south, local media reported.