French tourist hotspot hit by flash flood

Reports now claim that eleven people have been killed by flash floods in a very popular tourist region in south east France. Several others were reported missing after loads of rain hit the mountains above the Cote D’Azur region on Tuesday.

This large amount of rain caused the rivers in the Var region east of Marseilles to rise by as much as 8 feet. This forced hundreds of people to seek safety on the roofs of their homes. Hundreds of people were trapped in their floating cars as water flooded roads in towns and villages.

So far a number of towns have been affected. This does include the tourist hotspot of Draguignan. Here over 30cm of rain fell in just a few hours. Some of the other towns that were affected by this large amount of rain were Muy, Muc, Arcs, and Roquebrune sur Argens.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has issued a statement expressing his deepest condolences to the victims and their families. He also offered his support to rescue teams, who are mobilizing to find people that are still missing.

Reports say that 1,000 people had to leave their homes and spend the night in schools or other temporary shelters. 174,000 houses were estimated to have been left without electricity. The force of the water swept a lot of empty cars and other vehicles down streets.

Due to this, rail and air services in this region were interrupted. Almost 300 passengers traveling on a high speed TGV train between Nice and Lille were delayed by the flood waters. By Wednesday morning, 12 people were still reported missing.