Rome: Rome declared a state of emergency as the swollen Tiber river threatened to flood and the death toll from the heavy rains battering much of Italy rose to four.

The Civil Protection Department yesterday said the Tiber had risen about 16 feet in the past two days and warned it might burst its banks.

Officials evacuated Gypsy camps along the Tiber s banks and boats broke loose from their moorings in the surging water. The smaller Aniene river, which flows into the Tiber, already overflowed, forcing officials to close down some streets in Rome and evacuate hundreds of people.

"It is as if there has been an earthquake," Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno told the daily La Repubblica.

Tourists snapped pictures as the roiling Tiber surged underneath the city s bridges. Lumir, an Afghan hound, sported a blue raincoat yesterday as his owner watched the Tiber rise in Rome.

Italy has been hit by days of bad weather, and TV footage has shown entire neighbourhoods flooded or submerged by mud.

Downpours disrupted traffic yesterday from Milan in the north to Palermo, Sicily, in the south, as trains were delayed and many streets were flooded or blocked by fallen trees. A few inches of water again covered Venice s lowest parts, including the landmark St Mark s Square, while Alpine rescuers saved a group of boy scouts who had been trapped on Mount Etna

Four people were reported killed. Rescuers recovered the body of a man in southern Italy who was swept away in the heavy rains, while an elderly man died after his car was hit by a tree and another one was killed in a car crash in a rainstorm, police in the southern city of Reggio Calabria said

A woman was killed Thursday after her car was submerged in an underpass in Rome. In Rome and Venice, two of the hardest-hit cities, union officials called off local transport strikes.

Source : PTI