Floods cause death and derailment

An 80-year-old man has died in his cellar and a train was derailed as heavy rain continues to batter France.

The body of the man was discovered on May 31 in the cellar of his home in Libourne in the Gironde.

Firefighters in the region took part in 200 operations, mostly in the Bordeaux area.

At Auch, high water caused a regional TER train to derail although no one was injured.

In the Indre-Loire firefighters carried out more than 500 operations while high water in a tunnel near Tours caused delays to western TGV services.

In the north-east, the central railway station at Strasbourg was closed due to flooding over the weekend. Roads were closed around the region and in the Bas-Rhin firefighters attended one hundred incidents in two hours.

In Corsica, the town of Ajaccio had record rainfall, with 148mm in 24-hours – more than four times the average monthly rainfall and a rate not seen since 1949.

Water levels reached 1.5m in some streets destroying hundreds of cars and leaving homes without power.

While the bad weather continues across the country, Météo France has issued no specific weather warnings at present.

For updates visit the Météo France website here.

Photo: Flooded cars in Ajaccio, AFP Stephan Agostini