Venice overwhelmed by floods

Wooden platforms have been built over St Mark's Square

Bad weather has left parts of Venice flooded for the second week running.

This is believed to be the worst spate of sustained flooding in the city's history.

Tides rose over 1m above the median sea level on Monday flooding normally dry parts of the city, including St Mark's Square.

The floods are the result of unusually high tides, a low pressure system over the northern Adriatic and strong winds which are pushing sea waters into the Venice lagoon.

St Mark's Square was under water more often in 2000 than in 1998 and 1999 together and Venetians fear that global warming means their city will be flooded even more often in coming years.

But the government announced over Christmas it would cut spending on the city's flood defences by two-thirds over the next three years.