ROME, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Italy has been battered by storms in the last few hours, with risk warnings issued for several regions on Wednesday, according to the country's Civic Protection Agency.
The agency issued a storm alert for nine regions, including northern Piedmont, Lombardy, central Marche and Umbria, and southern Campania.
Northwest Piedmont and southern Calabria were also put under an additional high risk alert for flooding.
The warning came after streets flooded in several cities on Tuesday, causing disruption to local transport. In Rome, the landmark Constantine Arch was damaged by lightning during a thunderstorm.
However, the damage was limited, and the fragments were retrieved and secured as soon as the storm ended on Tuesday night. Meanwhile, maintenance work began on Wednesday morning, according to the agency managing the site.
Heavy rains are expected to continue throughout the week. Local authorities have issued an orange warning (second most severe level) for hydrogeological risk in some areas of central Tuscany and the Emilia Romagna region on Thursday, while the municipality of Venice put the lagoon city under red alert (the highest level).
