Not less than three individuals have died in floods attributable to 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 automobile in Vidauban, native authorities reported on Tuesday.
The rains have prompted widespread injury 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 house however have been swept away, “stunned 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 very 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 automobile 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 motive force and the passenger – however was solely in a position to rescue the motive 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 houses stay with out electrical energy, native authorities mentioned earlier.
Heavy rains and hailstorms had struck south-west France on Monday evening. The Bordeaux-Toulouse railway line has been affected with some trains on the route cancelled for the subsequent few days.