Flooding in the French Riviera claims at least 16 lives

Devastation: Flooding in the streets of Vallauris, southern France
AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau
Hannah Al-Othman4 October 2015

Flash flooding in and around the French Rivera has claimed at least 16 lives.

Sudden heavy rains overnight on Saturday were responsible for the floods, which led to the deaths of motorists trapped in cars, people on campsites, and residents in a retirement home.

People were found dead in the towns of Cannes, Biot, Golfe-Juan and Mandelieu-la-Napoule in the south east, not far from Italy, according to the French president's office.

President Francois Hollande paid an emergency visit to the region today to promise government aid for victims.

In a statement he said the rains on Saturday night had also caused serious damage.

Helicopters patrolled the area and 27,000 homes were without electricity today after rivers and streams overflowed their banks and fierce thunderstorms deluged more than 18 centimeters (6.7 inches) of rain in the region.

The Cannes region saw the equivalent of two months of rainfall in less than two hours, local radio France Bleu-Azur reported.

Several trains were stopped because of flooding on the tracks, and traffic remained stopped along the Mediterranean coast between Nice and Toulon all day Sunday, with several roads closed.

Some 2,500 Italian pilgrims - many of them sick and disabled - were among those stuck on trains.

They had travelled to the Marian shrine in Lourdes, where the Catholic faithful often go seeking cures for ailments, and were en route back to Italy on five special pilgrim trains when the storm hit.

Pope Francis offered his prayers for the victims during his weekly Sunday blessing from St. Peter's Square.

"We express our nearness to the hard-hit populations, including with concrete forms of solidarity," he said.

The flooding also disrupted a French league soccer match in Nice, forcing the stadium to shut down in the middle of play.

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