(ANSA) - Messina, October 2 - Rescue workers in Sicily counted at least 18 dead and ten missing on Friday in the wake of violent flooding and mudslides in and around Messina with the death toll expected to rise.
 
Dispatched to supervise relief efforts, civil protection chief Guido Bertolaso said ''the first priority is to focus on relief efforts before we start talking about whose fault this is''.
 
Bertolaso said rescuers were doing ''everything humanly possible'' to help survivors stranded in the areas hardest hit but that the mudslides covering roads and railways made getting to them''extremely difficult''. Some four hundred people have been evacuated from their homes by boat and helicopter, according to local officials who added that at least 40 were injured, some of them seriously.
 

After a survey of the damage area, Bertolaso laid much of the blame on illegal building. ''What do you expect to happen if you build a house on the banks of a river?'' said the civil protection chief pointing to a building in ruins.
 
''Water runs its course and if there are houses in the way, this is what happens''.
 
''I've been talking about this situation for years, but nothing ever gets done about it,'' said Bertolaso, adding that ''the civil protection service can't be held responsible for disasters that result from illegal building''.
 
Extending his condolences to the families of victims, President Giorgio Napolitano said Italy could choose between ''a serious plan to invest in security'' or ''monumental works'' at the risk of more disasters striking down the line.
 
Some observers saw this as a reference to a nearby project to build the world's largest suspension bridge linking Sicily to the mainland.
 
Torrential rains between Thursday and Friday dumped over 230cm of water on the Sicilian city in less than an hour knocking down houses in city districts and nearby towns and leaving dozens of people stranded on top of their roofs in areas rendered inaccessible. The government has declared a state of emergency in the area as relief efforts continued together with the search for the wounded and missing.