storm

Victims on the French Mediterranean island include a 13-year-old girl who died after a tree fell in a campsite and a British woman who vanished while kayaking off the coast.

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.  

The train reportedly crashed into a tree that had been left on the tracks following a heavy thunderstorm near Montpellier, leaving 11 people seriously injured.

The teenagers, attending an open camp near Strasbourg, were evacuated to a nearby arena just minutes before fierce winds damaged the site.

Court said mayor knew of flooding risks but hid them to allow seaside homes to be built; 29 died in 2010 storm when sea wall broke.

Winds of up to 120km/h  swept parts of the country, cutting power mainly in the Loire Valley in the west, but also Normandy in the north-west.

Cargo vessel slams into dyke after 'complete electrical breakdown' in high winds and strong seas off Anglet near Bayonne on Atlantic coast.

The body has been found of a 47-year-old woman washed out to sea off the Brittany island of Belle-Île amid strong storms across northern France.

France, Britain, Ireland and the Benelux countries are threatened by a major storm sweeping over the Atlantic and which threatens severe damage.

Snow and ice have left tens of thousands of homes temporarily without electricity and paralysed travel in the country’s north and northwest.