Around 1,500 inhabitants were evacuated from their homes and an estimated 23,000 households were without electricity in south-west France on Wednesday as storm Gloria, described as the most ferocious rainstorm to hit the region in almost 30 years, moved north from Spain, bursting river banks and whipping up huge waves which battered the Mediterranean coastline.
An earthquake registering 4.9 on the Richter scale shook south-west France late Wednesday morning, causing only minor damage and which, according to statements by French utilities giant EDF and the country's nuclear safety agency, the ASN, had no adverse effect on the functioning of the four-reactor Blayais nuclear plant which lies close to the epicentre of the seism.
