A landslide on the island of Ischia has left at least one dead and 20 injured, officials reported Tuesday. Describing the scene in Casamicciola, a port town on the island's north end, Mayor Vincenzo D'Ambrosio said it was "like the end of the world".

D'Ambrosio said he had just walked his daughter to school when "a river of dirt and rocks flooded the entire town". The mayor confirmed one death so far, a 15-year-old girl dragged out to sea in a bus by mud pouring down the slopes of Mount Epomeo, the island's volcanic peak. According to the civil protection department, over 20 survivors have been pulled from the mud so far with bruises and broken bones, including a small child said to be in serious condition.

One woman was dragged into the sea by the mudslides, where a coast guard patrol was able to rescue her. Rescuers are still searching for a missing 11-year-old girl. Local authorities said all roads connecting the area with the rest of the island have been cut off, forcing rescue workers to evacuate residents by sea. While there is no estimate of the damage so far, over 50 cars are said to have been buried under the mud or washed into the sea. This is the second fatal landslide to hit the Bay of Naples island in three years, after one in 2006 which killed four people and forced over 250 to flee their homes.

It is also the second such disaster to hit Italy this year, after flooding and mudslides in October killed 37 people in northern Sicily and forced 700 more to leave their homes. Following the Messina mudslides, civil protection chief Guido Bertolaso called for a nationwide campaign to safeguard areas at flood risk. Bertolaso said that illegal building and inadequate flood prevention measures bore much of the blame for the high death toll. His appeal was later backed by President Giorgio Napolitano who warned that failure to upgrade the the country's infrastructure would result in more loss of life in the future.