The furious downpour on Tuesday left the city of Carrara without drinking water and cut off a several-kilometre stretch of the Aurelia highway, a Roman road linking Tuscany to Rome, it said.

A total 257 millimetres (10 inches) of rain fell in the region on Tuesday alone.

The missing 76-year-old woman was swept out of her house by a swirling torrent of water and 30 others were forced to leave their homes.

Police received hundreds of calls for help from Viareggio, Pisa and Lucca and were obliged to send reinforcements to the region.

Tuscany is the third region of Italy to suffer pouring rains and severe floods since the end of the heatwave that scorched the country in August. Parts of the Venice region and Sicily have been declared natural disaster areas.

Authorities across Italy have received official government warnings that there could be huge floods following the summer heatwave.

TERRA.WIRE