French Securite Civile rescuers enter the Sagone camping in Coggia, where a tree felt on a tent killing two people
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)A British kayaker is among six victims of lethal thunderstorms on the French island of Corsica.
Police on Friday reported that the woman, in her 60s, was swept away by raging torrents in front of her husband on Thursday morning.
He managed to find shelter, but his wife’s body was found in water close to the city of Bastia that afternoon.
“She was declared dead after emergency services tried to rescue her,”said an investigating source.
The woman – who has not yet been identified – was on holiday with her husband in the north of the Mediterranean island.
At the time of the tragedy, they were kayaking close to the fishing village of Erbalunga, said the source.
A 13-year-old girl who was staying with her family on a campsite in southern Corsica also died when a tree fell on her and a 72-year-old woman was killed when her car was struck by a beach hut roof, authorities said.
A 46-year-old Frenchman also died when a tree fell on a campsite bungalow, and a 23-year-old Italian woman was injured at the same location and taken to hospital in critical condition.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin also announced that a fisherman had died in the storms.
On a crisis visit to Corsica, Mr Darmanin said “around 350 people had been reported missing”, as pleasure boats capsized, but all were later found alive and well.
Hail, heavy rain and 140mph winds battered the island with trees falling onto cars and homes, many of which were left without power.
Cedric Boell, manager of Gones Corses restaurants in northern Corsica, said: “We’ve never seen storms as powerful as this. You’d think it was a tropical storm.”
Yolhan Niveau, a wildlife photographer staying at a campsite near San-Nicolao, said the storm had torn through the site, uprooting trees and damaging mobile homes.
He said: “There was no warning. I don’t feel fear, just stupefaction. No one expected this.”
Many camps sites were evacuated, as people tried to find shelter in nearbly towns and cities.
There were also massive storms in mainland France on Thursday, with tornado-like gusts reported in the Loire and Ain departments.
A spokesman for Meteo France, the national meteorological service, said that the exact location of storms was always hard to predict.
Responding to criticism that they had not given advance warning, he said: “It was stated that storms formed at sea would hit large parts of the Corsica coast throughout the night from Thursday to Friday.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said he had called an emergency government meeting by video conference on Thursday evening to respond to the crisis.
