PHOTO Catastrophic landslide in Sicily. The edge of a city broke over a length of 4 kilometers

Around 1,500 people have been evacuated from a town in Sicily, Niscemi, after storm Harry caused a landslide along a 4 kilometer length of the hill on which the town is located, writes The Guardian.

The mayor of Niscemi said “the situation is desperate” after a large portion of the hill collapsed and many houses were left on its edge.

So far, 1,500 people have been evacuated after the ground began to slide on Sunday. The gaping chasm over a length of 4 kilometers causes fears that it could swallow the entire historic center of the town.

“It's a dramatic landslide,” said Massimiliano Conti, the mayor of Niscemi, a town in the south of the island, asking people outside the restricted zone to stay in their homes. “I don't want anyone to treat the event superficially. Unfortunately, there were no victims, only damaged houses,” added Conti.

The images show houses on the verge of collapse, and the authorities do not think they can be saved anymore. “All the houses within a radius of 50-70 meters will collapse,” said Salvatore Cocina, director general of the Sicilian civil protection authority, on Monday.

Schools remained closed on Tuesday, and a road linking Niscemi to the coastal town of Gela was closed to traffic.

Niscemi has a population of about 25,000 people. Many of the evacuees went to stay with relatives, but several hundred spent the last two nights in a gym in the area.

In an interview with La Reppublica, Conti said: “There's no point in hiding, we're scared.” He said the landslide extended another 10 meters during Tuesday morning.

“It was shocking to see Niscemi collapse. The situation is desperate, especially as the thunderstorm continues and the rain affects the intervention operations and technical expertise,” said the mayor. A major concern is that the city could remain isolated. “We are monitoring the situation non-stop because things can change at any moment,” the mayor also said.

The Italian government declared a state of emergency on Monday in the southern regions affected by storm Harry last week. The storm brought torrential rain and waves of up to 9 metres, wreaking havoc in Sicily, Calabria and Sardinia after destroying roads and coastal dikes, sweeping away beach resorts. The damage is estimated at more than one billion euros.

The government initially allocated 100,000,000 euros to cover the immediate needs of the most affected areas. “In the coming days, the government will adopt a new inter-ministerial measure to allow the restoration and reconstruction of the damaged infrastructure,” said Nello Musumeci, the Minister of Civil Protection.

In Sicily alone, the damage was 740,000,000 euros, but the president of the region, Renato Schifani, warned that the final amount could be double.