Floods bring more misery to terror victim’s widow

paris — A woman whose husband was killed in an extremist attack has now lost both of her parents in flash floods that killed at least 13 people in southwest France, officials said on Tuesday.

Martine Mazieres’ husband, Jean, was one of four people killed in a carjacking, shooting and supermarket hostage-taking in the Aude region in March.

On Monday, her father and mother were among victims of the flash floods that ripped through area towns. The parents’ deaths were confirmed by the mayor of Trebes, the town hardest-hit by the flooding and where extremist gunman Radouane Lakdim took hostages in a supermarket.

Martine Mazieres lives in the nearby town of Villedubert, said town councilor Norbert Acco, reached by phone. He, too, confirmed that her parents were among the flood victims in Trebes.

Le Parisien quoted Villedubert’s mayor, Marc Rofes, as saying that when he visited Mrs Mazieres, “she immediately told me that she feels as though fate is conspiring against her.”

Rescue workers were still searching for three people listed as missing in the floods. The Aude regional government and the Interior Ministry in Paris said the death toll had risen to 13.

The region’s top local official, Alain Thirion, said that flood victims were mainly older people who were “surprised by the amount of rain” when storms dumped several months-worth of rain in a few hours.

In Trebes, the town with the most deaths, the Aude River swelled from about knee-height to a destructive flood. —