Tree falls on tourist bungalow: five dead after storm on Mediterranean island 

Created: 08/18/2022, 16:56

Boats washed ashore by the storm at Sagone beach in Coggia on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica (pictured August 18).

© PASCAL POCHARD-CASABIANCA / AFP

On the holiday island of Corsica, there was a severe storm on Thursday, killing at least five people and injuring more than a dozen.

Floods hit other regions of France.

Ajaccio – At least five people were killed and a dozen others injured after a storm on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica on Thursday.

Exceptionally strong gusts of wind of up to 224 kilometers per hour brought down trees, burying people under them.

The youngest fatality was only 13 years old.

Storm in Corsica: At least five people die

The French weather service Météo-France had declared the second highest orange warning level for the island of Corsica on Thursday.

Accordingly, there were “severe thunderstorms on the west coast with very strong gusts”.

In Marignana, not far from the Le Sagone campsite, an “extraordinary gust of wind of 224 kilometers per hour” was measured.

The 13-year-old girl also died there.

It died when a tree fell on their bungalow at the campsite on the west of the island.

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A 72-year-old was also killed.

She died on the coast of the western municipality of Coggia when the blown-off roof of a hut fell on her vehicle.

A fisherman and a kayak driver also died.

According to the current status, the fifth fatality of the storm was a 46-year-old French tourist whose bungalow in Calvi fell on a tree.

In the same pine forest, which is also in the west of the island, a tree fell on a 23-year-old Italian woman, critically injuring her.

The prefecture of the Corse-du-Sud department had previously spoken of twelve injured.

70 rescue missions and all 45,000 people in Corsica without electricity

Rescue workers from France's Sécurité Civile enter the Sagone campsite in Coggia where a tree fell, killing two people, August 18, 2022 on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica.

© PASCAL POCHARD-CASABIANCA / AFP

Numerous rescue workers and fire brigades were on duty in Corsica on Thursday morning and some had to rescue day-trippers who were out at sea.

In many cases, the emergency services came to the aid of people whose boats had capsized or were in distress.

In addition, fallen branches blocked roads.

Coastal protection announced that "between 60 and 70 operations" were currently being carried out at sea and on the coasts.

There are several injured.

Because of the difficult weather conditions, the coastal defense was initially unable to use helicopters for the rescue operations.

The entire Mediterranean island was also temporarily without electricity, according to the provider EDF Corse, all around 45,000 customers in Corsica were affected.

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Other regions of France are also affected: floods in Marseille and Cassis

There were also severe storms in other parts of France.

The country had suffered from heat waves for weeks, and now in a few hours there was more precipitation in some regions than in the previous months.

According to Benoît Payan, the mayor of Marseille, 

More rain has fallen in twenty-four hours than since the beginning of the year," he said on Twitter.

Videos showed how streets in Marseille and nearby Cassis were under water late Wednesday evening.

On Wednesday not only rain but also hail fell in the north of Saint-Etienne in the French department of Loire.

There had been restrictions on car and train traffic, as reported by the French newspaper

.

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced on Thursday that he would travel to Corsica in the afternoon.

He assured those affected that "considerable resources would be made available," the minister wrote on Twitter.

According to scientists, climate change is leading to more frequent and more intense extreme weather events around the world

.