No fewer than eight people have died after devastating flash floods likened to an earthquake swept through villages in central Italy on Thursday night. Sky News reports that three people are missing after deluges saw 40cm of rain dumped in the region of Marche. Local authorities said they did not expect such a sudden “water bomb”, as around 400 millimetres of rain fell within three hours, inundating the streets of several towns in the Ancona and Pesaro-Urbino provinces.