Anger grew yesterday as the death toll rose to 21 after torrential rains in Sicily, with some 30 still missing.

"Another victim has been found at Scaletta Zanclea, bringing the number of deaths to 21", civil defence chief Guido Bertolaso said in nearby Messina.

Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who had called off a visit to the disaster area yesterday, would fly over in a helicopter today to see the scale of the damage, Bertalaso said.

Berlusconi had earlier decided not to go to the scene, saying he did not want to get in the way of the rescue efforts.

Some 250 millimetres of rain fell on northeastern Sicily in the space of a few hours last Thursday, triggering mudslides that collapsed buildings, carried off cars and cut off roads throughout the region.

Rescue workers and firemen, backed by sniffer dogs and some 200 volunteers resumed searching for survivors in the rubble of buildings yesterday, while helicopters flew in food for local inhabitants, regional civil defence spokesman Giampiero Gliubizzi said.

In Scaletta Zanclea, south of the port city of Messina on the northeastern tip of the island, mechanical diggers were clearing four or five metres of mud.

Witnesses said that in some towns such as Molino, the mud was up to seven metres deep.

Survivors were being kept away from the scene, and many seemed deprived of everything, including water supplies.

Several hundred people suffered some form of injury, and those needing hospital treatment had to be ferried aboard dinghies because the roads were impassable, while the seriously hurt were evacuated by helicopter.