As France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced on a visit to Corsica on Thursday evening, six people died in the storm on the island. A 13-year-old Austrian is also among the victims.
The spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Gabriele Juen, confirmed a report by the ORF “ZiB” to the APA. Accordingly, the girl may have died when a tree fell on his bungalow on a campsite in the west of the island, as the French news agency AFP reported on Thursday evening.
According to Juen, the Austrian consul and chargé d’affaires traveled to Corsica to support the 13-year-old’s family. It was initially unclear which state the family came from.
20 people were also injured, this is a preliminary balance sheet. French President Emmanuel Macron pledged support for the island and its residents. A crisis team was formed at Macron’s vacation spot on the Côte d’Azur in the evening, with the participation of Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne.
Gusts with a speed of more than 200 kilometers per hour had swept over Corsica. 45,000 households were temporarily without electricity. There were also storms and flooded streets in other parts of France, such as in Marseille.
Storm also in Italy
In Tuscany, a man and a woman were hit by falling trees near Lucca and in the coastal town of Carrara, several media reported. There was a severe weather warning for the north of the country to South Tyrol and large parts of central Italy. Some people suffered injuries in the violent storms with more than 100 kilometers per hour and heavy rain, such as at a campsite in Marina di Massa, Tuscany, when trees fell there.
Tuscany Regional President Eugenio Giani shared on Twitter a video from the coastal town of Piombino of a Ferris wheel being spun by strong winds. Other photos showed cars crushed by trees and devastated beaches. In the northern coastal region of Liguria and in Tuscany, which is popular with holidaymakers, the fire brigade counted more than 150 operations by the followingnoon.
A violent storm also swept through the northern Italian lagoon city of Venice, knocking down umbrellas and tables in the streets. Some fragments of the bell tower detached from the famous St. Mark’s Basilica in the center. Nobody got hurt. The civil defense convened a crisis team in the followingnoon because of the storms in central and northern Italy.
