French rescue workers were on Sunday searching for seven people, including two children, missing after violent storms hit the south of the country, with most believed to have been swept away in cars on flooded bridges, reports RFI.
A family of four, including two children aged four and 13, was caught in the floods while trying late Saturday evening to drive across a bridge over the river Gardon in the village of Dions, north of the city of Nîmes, the prefecture said.
The father and the two children were still missing but the mother, 40, who was also in the car, was found by rescuers and taken to hospital, it added.
In Dions on Sunday a helicopter flew over the village and the bursting waters of the Gardon while large numbers of firefighters engaged in search efforts, helped by drones and dogs. The bridge was still submerged.