Venice flooding news – live: Two killed as water approaches record levels and mayor declares city a ‘disaster zone’

"Venice has been tortured, but there are also other parts of the Veneto region besides Venice. It is an apocalyptic disaster," regional governor Luca Zaia told reporters.

He said he was "horrified" by what he was seeing from numerous communities.

“Despite its beauty and popularity Venice is just as susceptible to flooding as any coastal city," Professor Nigel Wright, an expert in flood risk management at Nottingham Trent University, told The Independent.

"As is often the case the current flooding is due to a double whammy of an extreme high tide and the low pressure from a storm raising the sea level. With sea levels rising this is likely to become more and more common causing untold damage to centuries-old buildings.

“The city has long planned for a defence system around the Venice lagoon, but such plans take a long time to plan, agree and implement. London's Thames barrier took over 20 years to be finished after the 1953 floods that were its motivation and the same flood event in the Netherlands led to a new barrier for Rotterdam only opening in the late ‘90s.

"The stasis in Italian politics means that the current plans may not be fit for the conditions we now know the historical city will face as this century progresses. The city state wielded great power and also suffered setbacks over centuries, but this is likely to be its last battle.”

Pictures show a firefighter in scuba diving gear wading through water past a flooded car, tourists carrying their luggage through water across St Mark's Square, flooded shops and the flooded crypt of St Mark's Basilica.

Vigili del Fuoco/REUTERS 

(Luca Bruno/AP) 

(Manuel Silvestri/Reuters) 

(Andrea Merola/EPA) 

Venice's mayor Luigi Brugnaro has said damages caused by the floods could cost millions.

 "It's in the hundreds of millions of euros," he said, when asked about the likely financial impact.

Meanwhile, Venice Archbishop Francesco Moraglia said St Mark's Basilica, which has been flooded for the sixth time in 1,200 years, said it may suffer "irreparable" harm.

He told a news conference: "The Basilica is suffering structural damage because the water has risen and so it's causing irreparable damage, especially when it dries out in the lower section of the mosaics and tiling."

(Andrea Merola/EPA) 

One man decided to go for a swim in the flood-hit St Mark's Square

The head of Italy's transport commission has vowed to send lawmakers to Venice to review a long-delayed flood protection barrier system which could have prevented the high tides.

Following the city's worst flooding in history in 1966, the Italian government asked engineers to draw up plans to build a barrier at sea to defend Venice.

Construction eventually began in 2003 and was set to be completed by 2011, however it is still unfinished and is now predicted to be ready by the end of 2021.

The "Mose" system consists of 78 bright yellow mobile barriers buried in the water that, when activated, will rise above the surface and prevent surging tides from the Adriatic Sea flooding the Venetian lagoon.

Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro said that "if Mose had been working, then we would have avoided this exceptional high tide".