Illegal construction is blamed for Sicily's fatal mudslide.

Poor drainage caused by illegal construction was blamed for mudslides that killed at least 20 people in eastern Sicily on Friday, with dozens missing and hundreds more injured. Dozens of buildings collapsed, leaving hundreds of people homeless in the worst floods to strike Italy since 1998.

Mechanical diggers clear a road after mudslides hit the village of Scaletta Zanglea near the Sicilian city of Messina October 4, 2009. Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi pledged on Sunday 1 billion euros ($1.45 billion) for areas threatened by landslides, after heavy rains and mud killed at least 22 people in Sicily.

The head of the Italian Civil Protection Service, Guido Bertolaso, directly blamed the construction of houses without permits - a practice rampant in Sicily and around Italy - for the deaths.

Houses are buried by debris and mud a day after mudslides hit the village of Giampilieri near the Sicilian city of Messina October 3, 2009. The death toll from rainstorms and landslides in Sicily rose to 20 on Saturday and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said the number of victims could more than double as 30 people were still missing. REUTERS/Antonio Parrinello (ITALY DISASTER ENVIRONMENT).

Legambiente, Italy's leading environmental group, had been warning about the dangers in the area, saying that many of the now-destroyed houses had been built in deforested valleys with no consideration for drainage, making the tragedy inevitable.

View of Scaletta Zanclea after torrential rains and mudslides swept through the Sicilian town on October 1. (AFP/Mario Laporta).

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