Three killed after flooding, the French Riviera region destroyed

At least three people died in floods caused by heavy rainfall and storms that have beated South France since Monday.

The bodies of an older couple were found in the seaside town of Le Lavandou aan Zee, while another person died after being imprisoned in a car in Vidauban, the local authorities reported on Tuesday.

The rains have caused widespread damage in the region, flooding streets and causing electricity and water failure. At least two regional trains stopped their journeys at night after the track tracks were damaged.

The couple who had died of leaving their house, but was wiped out, “surprised by the very rapid rise in water levels,” said Toulon’s public prosecutor.

An investigation has been opened in their death.

“We are in shock about the scale of the natural disaster that hit the Cavalière district this morning,” said civil servants in Le Lavandou. They said that the city center was flooded by 256 mm of rain in just an hour.

The city, about 30 km (18 miles) east of St Tropez, is a holiday destination along the French Riviera.

“It was a really violent, filthy, incomprehensible phenomenon,” said the local mayor Gil Bernardi, in which “roads are torn” and “bridges broken apart”.

Le Lavandou still suffered from electricity and water failure on Tuesday and access was also limited when the main road of the city remained flooded.

In the meantime, officials said further north in Vidauban that one person died after the car in which they were in a flooded road and fell into a ditch.

A passer -by tried to save both passengers – the driver and the passenger – but could only save the driver, Said Claude Pianetti.

In the past day, more than 500 calls were made to emergency services in the VAR region, the authorities said. A few hundred emergency rescuers have also been deployed in the region, including from nearby cities such as Cannes.

VAR was placed on Tuesday morning on further emergency warnings for thunderstorms and floods, but these were later lowered to the lowest level.

More than 600 houses remain without electricity, the local authorities said earlier.

Heavy rainfall and hail showers were hit in southwestern France on Monday evening. The railway line of Bordeaux-Toulouse has been hit in the coming days with some trains on the route that has been canceled in the coming days.