A video has been released showing cars being washed away down a street after torrential rain led to flash flooding throughout parts of southern Italy. In the amateur footage, filmed in the Sicilian tourist town of Taormina, floating waste bins and half-submerged cars can be seen being washed away down flooded streets.

Another video, filmed by a man with his mobile phone as he was driving through flooded streets in the area, shows a another man trudging through knee-deep muddy waters.

In the footage, the man can be heard saying, "Oh my God, this is not rain! Look, this [passing by] man has water to his knees, oh God. I am scared to end up submerged, underwater."

''There must be three metres of water, look. I am going home, running! Shocking,'' he added.

Another video shows water cascading off a nearby cliff face in the region.

''Going home is an odyssey today," a man could be heard saying whilst driving on a road connecting Giardini Naxos and Taormina.

The flash floods come after a Mediterranean cyclone swept through southern Italian regions on 9 September. The storm has seen torrential rain hit the regions of Sicily, Calabria and Puglia, with weather forecasts expecting it to continue in the coming days.

The footage comes after a video was posted on social media yesterday showing cars washed away by floods in the town of Adra, Spain. At least 30 people in the town trapped in their cars were rescued after water levels rose to over half a metre following torrential rain striking the Almeria region.

More flood videos