Not less than three individuals have died in floods brought on by heavy rainfall and storms which have battered southern France since Monday.
The our bodies of an aged couple have been discovered within the seaside resort city of Le Lavandou, whereas one other individual died after changing into trapped in a automotive in Vidauban, native authorities reported on Tuesday.
The rains have triggered widespread harm throughout the area, flooding streets and inflicting energy and water outages. Not less than two regional trains stopped their journeys in a single day after railway tracks have been broken.
The couple who died had tried to depart their dwelling however have been swept away, “shocked by the very speedy rise in water ranges”, the Toulon public prosecutor mentioned.
An investigation has been opened into their deaths.
“We’re in shock on the scale of the pure catastrophe that struck the Cavalière district this morning,” officers in Le Lavandou mentioned. They mentioned the city centre had been inundated by 256mm of rain in simply an hour.
The city, about 30km (18 miles) east of St Tropez, is a holidaying vacation spot alongside the French Riviera.
“It was a really violent, nasty, incomprehensible phenomenon,” mentioned native mayor Gil Bernardi, describing “roads torn up” and “bridges damaged aside”.
Le Lavandou was nonetheless struggling electrical energy and water outages on Tuesday and entry had additionally been restricted because the city’s foremost highway remained flooded.
In the meantime, officers additional north in Vidauban mentioned one individual had died after the automotive they have been in drove onto a flooded highway and fell right into a ditch.
A passer-by tried to save lots of each occupants – the driving force and the passenger – however was solely in a position to rescue the driving force, Vidauban’s city mayor Claude Pianetti mentioned.
Greater than 500 calls have been made to emergency companies within the Var area over the previous day, authorities mentioned. A number of hundred emergency rescuers have additionally been deployed to the area, together with from close by cities like Cannes.
Var was positioned on additional emergency warnings for thunderstorms and flooding on Tuesday morning, however these have been later downgraded to the bottom stage.
Greater than 600 properties stay with out electrical energy, native authorities mentioned earlier.
Heavy rains and hailstorms had struck south-west France on Monday night time. The Bordeaux-Toulouse railway line has been affected with some trains on the route cancelled for the subsequent few days.
