Sharjah24 - Reuters: At least nine people were killed by torrential overnight rains and floods in the central Italian region of Marche, authorities said on Friday, as rescuers continued to search for four still missing.

In Cantiano, a village close to the neighbouring Umbria region, residents were clearing mud from the streets, Reuters footage showed, after torrents had swept through several towns leaving a trail of trapped and damaged cars.

"My fruit shop has been turned upside down," Luciana Agostinelli, a local resident, told Reuters.

Around 400 millimetres (15.75 inches) of rain fell within two to three hours, the civil protection agency said, a third of the amount usually received in a year.

"It was like an earthquake," Ludovico Caverni, the mayor of Serra Sant'Abbondio, another village hit by the floods, told RAI state radio.

The head of the national civil protection agency, Fabrizio Curcio, met local authorities in Marche's capital city of Ancona to assess the damage, while party chiefs campaigning for Italy's Sept. 25 election expressed their solidarity.