14 killed as storm batters France

PARIS - At least 14 people have died in a violent storm that swept across France late Saturday and Sunday, France Info radio reported.

Packing winds of up to 160 km per hour, the storm uprooted trees, flooded houses, wreaked havoc with transportation and cut electricity to more than one million households.

Among the victims was an 88-year-old woman who was found drowned in her house on the Isle of Oleron, off the west coast. Another octogenarian woman and a 10-year-old child also died in the region.

In addition, a man was struck by a branch and killed late Saturday in the south-western city of Luchon.

The heavy rains and strong winds made numerous roads impassable and flooded cities along France’s Atlantic coast, cutting off many communities from the outside world.

The flooding was exceptional in many areas because the passage of the storm coincided with the annual spring tide. As a result, many dykes were swamped along the coastline.

France Info reported that helicopters have been deployed in the city of La Rochelle and other communities to evacuate people from their homes and rescue others from their rooftops, where they had gone to escape the rising waters.

The storm traversed France from the south-west to the north-east. At mid-morning Sunday, the storm touched the centre of the country, with gusts reaching more than 100 km per hour in Paris.

The carrier Air France said it had scrubbed 70 flights Sunday from Charles de Gaulle Airport, north of Paris, because of the high winds. Several railway lines from the capital were also cut because of trees that had fallen on the tracks.

The storm is considered one of the worst to strike the country since that of 1999, in which 92 people were killed.