GENEVA, June 30, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Ferocious storms and torrential rains that
lashed France, Switzerland and Italy this weekend have left five people dead,
local authorities said on Sunday.

Three people in their 70s and 80s died in France's northeastern Aube region
on Saturday when a tree crushed the car they were travelling in during fierce
winds, the local authority told AFP.

A fourth passenger was in critical care, it added.

In neighbouring Switzerland, two people have died and a third is missing
after torrential rains triggered a landslide in the southeast, police in the
Italian-speaking canton of Ticino said.

According to local daily La Regione, the dead were two women who were on
holiday in the Alpine region.

Emergency services were assessing the best way to evacuate 300 people who had
arrived for a football tournament in Peccia, while almost 70 more were being
evacuated from a holiday camp in the village of Mogno.

The poor weather was making rescue work particularly difficult, police had
said earlier, with several valleys inaccessible and cut off from the
electricity network.
The federal alert system also said part of the canton was without drinking
water.

In the western canton of Valais, the civil security services said "several
hundred" people were evacuated and roads closed after the Rhone and its
tributaries overflowed in different locations.

Extreme rainfall also struck southeastern Switzerland last weekend, leaving
one dead and causing major damage.

In northern Italy's Aosta Valley, internet users shared images of spectacular
floods and swollen rivers rushing down mountain slopes.

Scientists say climate change driven by human activity is increasing the
severity, frequency and length of extreme weather events such as floods and
storms.