Dusseldorf  - The Cernobbio Tunnel in Italy was dubbed Tuesday the most dangerous road tunnel in Europe by European motoring clubs, the fourth year running that an Italian tunnel has been rated bottom of the class.

Germany's ADAC motoring club said in Dusseldorf the 2.4-kilometre tunnel had no staffed control room, no emergency telephones for motorists in distress and no automatic smoke fire sensors or smoke extraction system.

It had too few emergency-exit doors and escape routes were not adequately marked. The tunnel, near Lake Como, was opened in 1983.

The 11-nation tunnel survey was conducted by the European Tunnel Assessment Programme (EuroTAP), a project supported by the FIA federation of automobile clubs and 19 European motoring clubs including the ADAC.

This is the 10th year that EuroTAP has inspected European road tunnels on behalf of its members. It examined 31 and said one third of them were unsatisfactory, the worst outcome for five years.

All three Norwegian tunnels surveyed were given low marks, ranking them at the bottom of the list only just above the Cernobbio Tunnel.

In all, EuroTAP inspectors rated 10 tunnels as "very good." The best of the 31 tunnels was the Pont Pla Tunnel in Andorra la Vella, a 1.3-kilometre tunnel opened in 2006. Tiny Andorra is situated in the Pyrenees mountains between Spain and France. (dpa)