Violent thunderstorms tore through southeastern France on Tuesday, leaving at least three people dead, including an elderly couple whose vehicle was swept away by floodwaters.
Local officials have described the aftermath as resembling “scenes of war“, as the region reels from the destruction.
The fatalities occurred in the coastal town of Le Lavandou and in nearby Vidauban, according to local authorities.
The elderly couple, both in their eighties, were found in their submerged car, with the woman’s body still trapped inside the wreckage, Toulon public prosecutor Samuel Finielz confirmed.
An investigation has been launched to establish the precise cause of their deaths.
“The situation was quite difficult on the ground,” Finielz told AFP, highlighting the extent of the chaos.
Le Lavandou’s mayor, Gil Bernardi, painted a grim picture of the aftermath: “It was a really violent, vicious, incomprehensible phenomenon.
Roads were torn up, bridges were brought down… There is nothing left no electricity, no drinking water, no sewage treatment plant,” he said in an emotional interview with BFM TV.
In Vidauban, a third person died after a car was carried into a ditch by floodwaters.
The town’s mayor, Claude Pianetti, said the vehicle drove onto a submerged country road. While the driver was rescued by a local official, the passenger could not be saved.
The deadly storm system also hammered southwestern France just a day earlier, unleashing hailstorms and torrential rain that flooded homes and crippled rail transport.
A high-speed TGV train traveling from Toulouse to Paris was forced to stop overnight near Tonneins after the ground beneath the track subsided, exposing the rails and leaving the train suspended above a washout.
More than 500 passengers were stranded until they were evacuated by bus in a large-scale operation involving firefighters, police, and volunteers.
“We narrowly avoided a disaster,” said Tonneins Mayor Dante Rinaudo. “The track was exposed and the TGV was hanging above it.”
Rinaudo described “avalanches of water” sweeping through the town, flooding homes and cellars, and urged the national government to declare the storm a natural disaster.
Another train, also en route from Toulouse to Paris, was stranded overnight in Agen. Passengers were taken back to Toulouse by bus on Tuesday morning.
The state rail operator SNCF announced that train traffic would be suspended for several days between Agen and Marmande, significantly disrupting TGV services connecting Bordeaux and Toulouse.
As emergency crews continue recovery and repair efforts, French authorities are assessing the widespread damage across multiple regions.
Calls for government intervention and support are growing louder as communities begin the difficult task of rebuilding.
