Five dead in violent storms and heavy rain in France, Switzerland and Italy

The bad weather made rescue work particularly difficult

Paris:

Five people were killed in the violent storms and torrential rain that raged across France, Switzerland and Italy this weekend, local authorities said on Sunday.

Three people aged between 70 and 80 were killed in the northeastern French region of Aube on Saturday when strong winds crushed the car they were travelling in by a tree, local authorities told AFP news agency.

A fourth passenger is in intensive care, it said.

In neighboring Switzerland, two people have died and a third is missing after torrential rains triggered a landslide in the southeast, police in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino said.

According to the local newspaper “La Regione”, the dead are two women who were on holiday in the Alpine region.

Emergency services were assessing how best to evacuate 300 people who had arrived for a football tournament in Peccia, while nearly 70 others were evacuated from a holiday camp in the village of Mogno.

The bad weather made rescue operations particularly difficult, police had previously explained, as several valleys were inaccessible and cut off from the power grid.

The federal warning system also reported that parts of the canton were without drinking water.

In the western canton of Valais, civil security services said “several hundred” people had been evacuated and roads closed after the Rhone and its tributaries overflowed their banks in several places.

Heavy rainfall also occurred in southeastern Switzerland last weekend, resulting in one death and causing major damage.

In the Aosta Valley in northern Italy, internet users shared images of spectacular floods and swollen rivers rushing down mountain slopes.

Scientists say human-caused climate change is increasing the severity, frequency and duration of extreme weather events such as floods and storms.

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