Fierce thunderstorms and hurricane-force winds hit the French island of Corsica on Thursday morning, killing at least five people, including a teenage girl, and injuring dozens of others, local authorities said.
Following three days of intense rains, thunderstorms on Thursday killed at least five people on or off the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea island.
Hail, heavy rain and winds measured as peaking at 224 km per hour (140 mph) swept across the French island as parts of the country – which has been hit by a series of heatwaves and severe drought – saw more rain in just a few hours than in recent months combined.
Those killed on Corsica, a major tourist destination, included a 13-year-old girl who died when a tree fell on the campsite where she was staying and a 72-year-old woman whose car was struck by a beach hut roof, authorities said.
A 46-year old Frenchman died when a tree fell on a campsite bungalow in the north, authorities said. A 23-year-old Italian woman was injured at the same location and taken to hospital in critical condition.
Rescue crews found the bodies of a 62-year-old fisherman and an unidentified kayaker off Corsica’s coasts, according to the French maritime authority for the Mediterranean. It said both died as a result of the sudden storm and that more than 100 grounded, wrecked or stranded ships in the area have called for emergency help.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he had called an emergency government meeting by video conference on Thursday evening to respond to the crisis.
Visiting Corsica, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said that at one point about 350 people had been reported missing as pleasure boats had capsized or been thrown adrift, but he said they had now all been found alive and well.
‘There was no warning’
Witnesses of the morning storm, which wrecked campsites, delayed trains and uprooted trees, said they had never seen anything like it on the island.
"We have never seen such huge storms as this, you would think it was a tropical storm," said Cedric Boell, manager of the restaurant Les Gones Corses in northern Corscia, who saw two pleasure boats tossed onto nearby rocks.
Yolhan Niveau, 24, a wildlife photographer staying at a campsite near San-Nicolao in the northeast of the island, said the storm had torn through the site, uprooting trees and damaging mobile homes.
"There was no warning. ... I don't feel scared just stupefaction. No one expected this," Niveau said.
Households without power on mainland
After a summer of drought, heatwaves and forest fires, violent storms have hit France and neighbouring countries in recent days.
On France's mainland, grid operator Enedis said about 1,000 households were without power after a storm hit the southern Loire and Ain departéments (administrative units).
On Wednesday evening in Marseille, streets were flooded and streams of water ran down steps in the port city, videos shared on social media showed.
Farther north, drought has left the river Loire, famous for castles along its banks, so shallow that even flat-bottomed tourist barges can barely navigate it.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
