MONTEMURLO (Italy): The death toll from Storm Ciaran rose to at least 15 across Western Europe on Friday, as heavy downpours and record winds brought chaos to land, sea and air travel.

At least five people died in Tuscany, Italian authorities announced on Friday, declaring a state of emergency as weather specialists reported record rainfall.

Another three people were killed off the coast of Portugal when a sailboat ran aground north of Lisbon in strong swells.

In Italy, the rescue services were called out to dozens of incidents across Tuscany to help motorists stranded in flooded tunnels or hemmed in by trees brought down by the winds.

Tuscany governor Euge­nio Giani said the five dead in the Italy storms included an 85-year-old man found drowned on the ground floor of his house in Mont­emu­­rlo, northwest of Florence.

“What happened tonight in Tuscany has a name: climate change,” Giani wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Residents were busy on Friday mucking out homes, garages and cellars swamped by the floodwaters, throwing damaged furniture and appliances onto the street, said a photographer on the scene.

Mayor of Florence Dario Nardella described the situation as “critical” in the city, as the level of the Arno River continued to rise.

Record winds in France

Trees felled by gale-force winds caused several of the deaths in Europe. In the Belgian city of Ghent, a five-year-old Ukrainian boy and a 64-year-old woman were killed by falling branches.

Falling trees had earlier killed a lorry driver in his vehicle in northern France’s Aisne region, and French officials also reported the death of a man who fell from his balcony in the port city of Le Havre as the storm hammered the French coast on Thursday.

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2023