Italian civil protection authorities had issued alerts for nine southern regions from Sicily up the Adriatic coast that predicted "violent" winds during the day.

The girl was killed by a falling tree at Bisceglie, a beach town near Bari, the agency said. Earlier the winds blew a street lamp being carried on a crane onto a 38-year-old maintenance worker in Taranto on the Ionian coast. The man was killed on the spot.