Naples

Torrents of mud and water unleashed by two days of incessant rain engulfed hundreds of homes in southern Italy yesterday, killing at least 33 people.

Backed by military helicopters, thousands of firefighters, soldiers, and emergency workers searched for 70 more people feared buried under piles of rubble and mud.

Rivers of mud burst into town centres, tearing apart houses and bridges, swallowing cars and sending residents fleeing in the heavily populated area dotted with small and mid-size towns.

About 2000 people were left homeless throughout the region from Naples to Salerno, about 37 miles to the south-east, Italy's civil protection agency said.

In Sarno, a town of about 2000 people, the mud burst through the first floor of the Villa Malta hospital, sweeping away part of a staircase. The bodies of two doctors, a nurse, a doorman, and a patient were pulled out from under the mix of rubble and mud.

''It was like in the films,'' nurse Aniello D'Auria said. ''We were overwhelmed by a great black river. I was with two colleagues and I didn't even have time to shout 'get out of the way' before the staircase came down.''

A 34-year-old woman and her three children, aged 13, nine, and seven, were killed when a torrent of mud swept by their home in nearby Bracigliano, dragging the four downstream for 620yd. The children's father managed to save himself by climbing on the roof of his home.

Italy's Interior Minister, Giorgio Napolitano, headed to the disaster area yesterday afternoon.

President Clinton expressed his sympathy to Premier Romano Prodi, who was visiting Washington. The US embassy in Rome said a US C-130 transport plane from Aviano air base was taking 45 Italian civil defence workers from northern Italy to Naples after a government request.

Naples Archbishop Michele Giordano expressed his ''deepest condolences and pain'' for the victims of the disaster.

Many residents in the Naples-Salerno region spent Tuesday night on rooftops or on the highest floors of apartment buildings to avoid the flow of mud. Some trapped in their homes waved white handkerchiefs from windows to attract rescue workers, who lowered themselves from helicopters to pluck stranded residents off the building tops.

Cranes and trucks helped to pull out about 160 people trapped under 3ft high mounds of mud.

One young boy was saved just moments before a new flow of mud gushed down the road where he stood trapped, police said.

Piles of mud and boulders covered railway tracks and roads, bringing traffic to a standstill. Power and telephone lines were down in much of the area.

Rain had stopped by midday yesterday and meteorologists said the weather would improve. Geology experts were determining whether more slides were likely.

Many residents complained that rescue efforts were too slow and unco-ordinated.

''We can't permit a territory to break apart like this,'' said Archbishop Giordano. ''We need immediate intervention, but also a long-term project for the area, and the government needs to act.''

The chief of Italy's civil protection agency, Andrea Todisco, said many homes had been illegally built too close to rivers or in areas prone to landslides, aggravating the damage. - AP/Reuters