(CNN) Twelve people have been confirmed dead after severe flooding in Sicily, Italy, on Sunday, bringing the nationwide death toll from a week of extreme weather to 29.

Nine members of two families were among those killed, as they dined together in a house that was submerged by water from a nearby river that suddenly overflowed, according to the fire brigade, which said its divers had found the bodies.

Giuseppe Giordano, one of the survivors, told Sky TG24 the harrowing story of how he lost his teenage son, Federico, and one-year-old daughter, Rachele, in the incident.

The swollen Milicia river runs in the area where nine people lost their lives when their home was flooded in Casteldaccia, near Palermo, Italy on Sunday, November 4.

Federico was trying to hold his sister above the deluge.

"I saw the windows had darkened. I took the car keys to try to leave and the window exploded, and then the wall unit fell and then I didn't see anything else ... maybe the light went out."

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