MILAN, July 25 (Reuters) - Two women were killed and a 16-year-old boy seriously injured as severe storms battered northern Italy overnight, while a wild fire in Sicily forced the temporary closure of Palermo airport.
With much of southern Italy still baking in a heatwave, the overnight storm in Milan tore off roofs and uprooted hundreds of trees, blocking roads, smashing parked cars and disrupting overground transportation in the Italian financial capital.
"It all happened around 4 or 5 AM (0200-0300 GMT) this morning, it was very short but very intense, it knocked down several trees...with the wind gusts they took off and broke up," witness Roberto Solfrizzo, 66, told Reuters.
Gates to public parks in the city were closed and people were banned from accessing open areas with trees for safety reasons.
Tourist attractions also bore the brunt of the storm as the Sforza Castle was shut after some tiles were brought down and rain was heavy enough to penetrate the glass-vaulted Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Milan's famed shopping arcade.
"I have been through 65 summers in my lifetime... and what I am seeing now is not normal, we can no longer deny it, climate change is changing our lives," Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala said on social media.
In the northern Monza and Brescia provinces, two women were killed on Monday and Tuesday after being crushed by falling trees, while the teenager was seriously injured when he was hit by a falling branch in the Veneto region.
RED ALERT FOR HEATWAVE
In other parts of Italy, the heatwave engulfing southern Europe maintained its grip, with 16 Italian cities on red alert on Tuesday because of the high temperatures.
These include Sicily's capital city of Palermo and smaller Catania, where power and water supply cuts that local officials blamed in part on the heat have been frequent in recent days.
In some parts of eastern Sicily, temperatures rose to 47.6 Celsius (117.7 Fahrenheit) on Monday, close to a record European high of 48.8 Celsius recorded on the island two years ago.
Palermo's airport operator said flights were able to take off and land again by late morning on Tuesday after a nearby wild fire had earlier put it out of action.
Regional authorities said a woman died after an ambulance could not reach her home due to the blaze.
The temporary closure of the airport added to Sicily's travel misery at the peak of the tourist season. The island's main airport of Catania, Italy's fifth-biggest, was closed last week due to a fire in a terminal building and has reopened only for a few flights.
Photos on social media also showed a fire threatening the ancient archaeological site of Segesta, in Sicily. Local authorities said the blaze was put out and the site was temporarily closed to carry out checks for potential damage.
