Europe storms: Deaths are reported in

France, Austria and Italy

 Published

3 hours ago

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IMAGE SOURCE,EPA
Image caption,
France's interior minister has been inspecting storm damage in Corsica
Powerful storms have battered areas of central and southern Europe, killing at least 13
people including three children.
The deaths, most from falling trees, were reported in Italy and Austria, and on the
French island of Corsica.
Heavy rain and winds wrecked campsites on the island, while in Venice, Italy,
masonry was blown off the belltower of St Mark's Basilica.
The storms follow weeks of heatwave and drought across much of the continent.
In Corsica, winds gusting up to 224 km/h (140mph) uprooted trees and damaged
mobile homes.
Authorities there said a 13-year-old girl was killed by a falling tree on a campsite.
A man died in a similar incident and an elderly woman was killed when her car was
hit by the detached roof of a beach hut.
Two other people, a fisherman and a female kayaker, died out at sea.
Later French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who has arrived in Corsica to inspect
storm damage, reported a sixth death.
Dozens more people were injured on both land and sea.
Witnesses to the storms said they had been completely unexpected and no warning
was given.
"We have never seen such huge storms as this, you would think it was a tropical
storm," restaurant owner Cedric Boell told Reuters news agency.
On the French mainland, some southern areas were hit by power cuts and streets
were flooded in the country's second city, Marseille.

IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS
Image caption,
Heavy rain and mudslides have devastated parts of Carinthia, Austria
In Austria two girls were killed by a falling tree near a lake in Carinthia.
Later, three more deaths were reported by media in Lower Austria province, also as
a result of a falling tree.
 Four ways climate change is affecting weather
Meanwhile in Italy, a man and a woman were killed by falling trees in separate
incidents in the region of Tuscany.
High winds swept through Venice, blowing café umbrellas across St Mark's Square
and dislodging brickwork from the cathedral belltower.
IMAGE SOURCE,EPA
Image caption,
Parts of Venice's St Mark's Square were cordoned off after the storm
Seaside resorts in Tuscany and further north in Liguria were damaged by the storms.
But in southern Italy, the heatwave continued, with temperatures of up to 40C
recorded in Sicily.
And across the Mediterranean Sea in Algeria, at least 38 people have died in forest
fires.
Many parts of Europe have seen weeks of exceptionally hot and dry weather.
Extreme weather events, including both heatwaves and storms, have become more
intense and more frequent in recent years because of human-induced climate
change.
The world has already warmed by about 1.1C since the industrial era began and
temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts
to emissions.
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