The death toll from fierce storms battering Italy has risen to 11, civil protection authorities said on Tuesday, as wild weather caused schools to close and trapped dozens of tourists in the north of the country.

With ferocious storms lashing the country, winds reached up to 110 mph in some areas, toppling trees and causing flooding.

Many of the deaths were due to trees crashing down on cars and pedestrians. The victims also included a woman who was buried by mud when a landslide invaded her home near Trento in northern Italy and a man who was slammed against rocks while wind surfing in Emilia-Romagna.

The other fatalities occurred in Naples, Liguria, Lazio and Veneto, where authorities found a 61-year-old man whose body had been swept more than a kilometer (half a mile) away from his car.

"It was the perfect storm during which adverse meteorological conditions contributed to the situation in the sea and winds," civil protection chief Angelo Borrelli said.