About 500 residents were evacuated after a landslide tore through part of the Italian town of Niscemi, damaging a key access road and raising fears the area could be cut off, according to officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The landslide was reported Sunday in the Sante Croci neighborhood of Niscemi, a town in Sicily, Italy\u2019s largest island, according<\/a> to the regional civil protection agency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Authorities said the slope failure occurred near the Benefizio stream and affected a section of Provincial Road SP10, one of the main links between the area and the town center. The ground collapse was estimated at about 20 feet (six meters).<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a precaution, civil protection officials ordered evacuations in areas considered at risk, affecting at least 500 people. Regional authorities said hundreds of cots were being transported from Palermo, Sicily\u2019s capital, to set up temporary accommodation for evacuees at the Pio La Torre sports complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sicily\u2019s regional president, Renato Schifani, said<\/a> he was in close contact with local officials and warned that the landslide risked isolating the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The landslide affected a residential area along a steep slope, cracking road surfaces and leaving some homes close to the edge of the collapse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n