In the middle of intense rain and heavy flooding, an Italian couple was able to rush out of their house just before it collapsed.
Claudio Piana and his wife Sabrina Pellegrini survived a landslide that caused their house to collapse after being woken by their cats last Monday night, Secolo XIX newspaper reported.
The couple had gone to bed when Sabrina stood up to check the noise created by the two cats, Simba and Mose.
Sabrina then saw their two cats playing with a piece of plaster which had just fallen off the ceiling.
The couple then rushed out of the house after they saw cracks in the walls of their two-story home.
The couple headed to their car but got trapped by a sea of mud, the report said.
Fortunately, firefighters arrived and rescued the couple as well as the hero cats.
Fierce rains across the Liguria region saw rivers bursting their banks and washing away a bridge and sparked landslides.
The violent storms that battered northern Italy killed a taxi driver and displaced dozens of residents. (CC)
