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Macron to visit storm-lashed northwest of France

According to French electricity network manager Enedis, almost 700,000 people remained without power by Thursday evening.

La rédaction de Mediapart

This article is freely available.

In France, some 1.2 million homes lost electricity as the storm lashed the northwest coast on Thursday, reports RFI.

According to French electricity network manager Enedis, almost 700,000 remained without power by Thursday evening.

Meanwhile, French president Emmanuel Macron is due to visit the storm damage in the north-western region of Brittany this Friday.

The wind gusts recorded in Brittany were "exceptional" and "many absolute records have been broken," national weather service Méteo-France said on X (formerly Twitter). 

The prefect for the local department said gusts as high as 207 km/h were recorded at Pointe du Raz on the tip of the northwest coast, while the port city of Brest saw winds hit 156 km/h.

Falling trees had earlier killed a lorry driver in his vehicle in northern France's Aisne region, and French authorities also reported the death of a man who fell from his balcony in the port city of Le Havre.

Read more of this report from RFI.