France reported widespread destruction and dozens of injuries Tuesday after a powerful tornado struck a village in the south of the country. Authorities said more than 300 buildings were damaged or destroyed in the village of Pomas in the Aude department, which bore the brunt of the storm. Thirty-nine people were reported injured, 15 of whom were taken to hospitals. Two were listed in critical condition.
The storm struck the village at about 5:20 p.m. local time Monday, according to reports, with winds reaching 117 kph, or about 73 mph. Only in the hours that followed did the full scale of the destruction become clear, with homes collapsing and roofs torn away.
Powerful tornado devastates village in France
(Video: Reuters)
“Half the village has been destroyed,” a resident named Pierre told local media, describing the tornado as “a huge red-and-yellow chimney.” He said an ancient castle in the village was also badly damaged. “There is a huge castle and a third of it collapsed — even though those stones had been standing there for 1,000 years.”
One resident told an AFP team that reached the village that his pregnant wife was injured when their house collapsed on her. AFP reported that authorities confirmed the woman had been rescued from the rubble. According to the report, a wall collapsed on her while she was inside, but a sofa shielded her. The report did not give details on her condition or that of the fetus.
Another resident told French radio in shock: “I heard an enormous noise, then I saw everything flying around through the air, and my roof collapsed. I have no house left, that’s for sure.”
(Photo: Idriss Bigou-Gilles / AFP)
Authorities launched a search-and-rescue operation in the village but later said there was no concern that anyone was missing or trapped under the rubble.
In addition to the direct damage in the village, which has about 1,000 residents, 21,000 households across a wider area of southwestern France lost power Tuesday morning as the national weather service issued a thunderstorm warning. Of those, 1,600 were in the Aude department.
(Photo: Idriss Bigou-Gilles / AFP)
(Photo: Idriss Bigou-Gilles / AFP)
(Photo: Idriss Bigou-Gilles / AFP)
Although the footage now emerging from Pomas is unusual, tornadoes themselves are not especially rare there, and France experiences several dozen each year.
The destructive storm comes after a summer in which France broke heat records during several heat waves that affected the country and large parts of Europe. The extreme heat also contributed to major wildfires, particularly in southwestern France, where one of the country’s largest fires since World War II burned last month and forced more than 200,000 people to evacuate their homes in the Bordeaux region.