Some 200 volunteers from Italy's civil protection unit were still battling the effects of Friday's storms, despite the risk that further deluges of rain in the northeast could force more evacuations.

Mud-coloured torrents of water continued to rush down the valleys in the Udine province, creating the risk of a repeat of Friday's dramatic landslides.

In all, 400 houses have been damaged in the region from the storms, while 350 people have been evacuated from their homes.

Television pictures showed houses perched precariously above gorges carved out by the torrents, which had created hollows several metres lower than the buildings' own foundations.

The authorities in the German-speaking region, which lies near the Austrian border, have released some 200,000 euros (220,000 dollars) in emergency aid for the victims.

After months of drought and heat wave, some 40 centimetres (16 inches) of rain fell in only six hours on Friday, causing mudslides in seven villages and heaping them with debris.

One of the dead victims drowned after being caught up in a mudslide near the village of Malborghetto Valbruna, while the other died when a small hotel collapsed on a mountainside.

TERRA.WIRE