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Heavy and persistent rain causes flooding in northern France

The floods have hit towns and villages from the north-central loiret region to the Channel coast, while in Paris the river Seine has spilled over its banks.

La rédaction de Mediapart

This article is freely available.

Parts of northern France have been hit by flooding after sustained heavy rain swept the region, reports BBC News.

The national weather service declared a red alert in the Loiret region and orange alerts in areas nearby as the River Loing burst its banks.

Further north, the Pas-de-Calais département (county) was also on alert.

A child of three drowned in the Yonne département on Sunday and heavy rain also shut down the French Open tennis tournament in Paris on Monday.

One of the towns particularly affected by the flooding on Tuesday was Bruay-la-Buissiere, near Lens, where firefighters patrolled the streets in a dinghy.

Emergency services were called out 4,500 times across the country between Monday evening and Tuesday morning as "numerous" roads flooded and hundreds of evacuations were carried out.

Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve advised people to exercise the "greatest caution".

In Pas-de-Calais, rescue workers evacuated homes or ordered people to move to higher floors as rivers rose more than 1metre (3feet) in some areas.

In the capital Paris, officials said the River Seine was at levels normally seen only in winter.

Monday's washout at the French Open was the first time in 16 years a whole day's play had been cancelled but tournament director Guy Forget remained confident the tournament would finish on schedule on Sunday.

The child who died on Sunday in France's Yonne department was found in the basement of their family home in the village of Saint-Martin-d'Ordon.

It appears that the child slipped and fell, French media say.

Read more of this report from BBC News.