Italy is blowing hot and cold

Rome: An extraordinary hailstorm in Seregna, a town near Milan in northern Italy, injured more than a hundred people on Thursday.

Torrential rain swept across northern Italy on Friday, 21 July, bringing high winds, hail and flash flooding.

In the town of Seregno, hail-filled floodwaters coursed through the streets while an intense hailstorm hit Venice on Wednesday.

The bad weather comes as the heatwave in the South continues unabated.

In Sicily, temperatures are hovering around 45 ºC and the power grid is overloaded as residents have been warned to stay indoors and turn up the air con.

Hospital admissions have increased by 20 percent and two Sicilians have so far died.