18 killed as storm batters France

PARIS - At least 18 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 supply to more than one million households, primarily along the Atlantic coastline.

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 Saturday in the south-western city of Luchon.

Officials fear that the death toll could still rise, since many people have been reported missing and are feared swept away by the floodwaters.

The heavy rains and strong winds made numerous roads impassable and flooded cities along the 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 dikes were swamped or simply collapsed.

The storm is considered one of the worst to strike the country since that of 1999, which killed 92 people and caused several billion euros worth of damage.

But the mayor of La Rochelle, Maxime Bono, told France Info that his city had suffered far more damage from this storm than in 1999.

Rescue helicopters have been deployed in La Rochelle and other coastal 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, it touched the greater Paris area, where winds reached more than 100 kmph in Paris.

The carrier Air France said it had scrubbed about 100 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.

Before it reached France, the storm cut a swath through Portugal and Spain, where four people were reported killed.

In south-western Germany, the storm toppled a tree on a car driving in the Black Forest mountains, killing one occupant and injuring a second.