A giant waterspout swept close to a tourist boat off the coast of northern Italy on Thursday morning, part of a wider spell of severe weather that has left at least two people dead and caused widespread flooding and destruction across the country. Footage captured the towering vortex churning across the sea near Rapallo, narrowly missing the vessel as passengers reacted with alarm, before the waterspout dissipated without causing damage. The incident came amid a broader pattern of intense storms battering Italy, underlining the scale of disruption from the extreme weather event.

Severe thunderstorms hit northern and central Italy, with more than 63,000 lightning strikes recorded in Tuscany within 12 hours and over 200 emergency rescue operations carried out. An 83-year-old woman drowned in Latisana after becoming trapped in her car during flash floods, while a second elderly woman died in Sinalunga after glass from a window shattered by a tornado severed a major vein in her leg. Further chaos included the Lambro River bursting its banks in Milan, around 45 people evacuated near Sondrio after a landslide, flooding at a hospital in Brescia, and rescues of trapped residents in Venice, with the Veneto and Friuli regions placed under a yellow weather alert after up to 200mm of rain fell overnight.