At least 12 die in French floods unseen in more than a century

PARIS — Flash floods that tore through several towns in southwest France following an overnight storm killed at least 12 people, authorities said Monday. Some residents had to be helicoptered from rooftops as the equivalent of several months of rain poured down in a few hours and turned waterways into raging torrents.

Initially, the French Interior Ministry reported 13 deaths from the floods in the Aude region. French officials lowered the number to 10 later, saying some victims had been counted twice. The Interior Ministry and Aude officials put it at 12 after two more bodies were recovered in the towns of Trebes and Carcassonne.

At least six of the deaths happened in Trebes, Mayor Eric Menassi said. Eight people were injured throughout the affected region and one person was missing as of late Monday.

The River Aude that flows through towns such as Carcassonne and Trebes was among the waterways that overflowed from the exceptional rainfall, and the flooding was the region’s worst in more than a century, the French agency that monitors flood risks said.

In the town resident of Villegailhenc, Ines Siguet said floodwaters rose so quickly after the rains swept in from the Mediterranean that residents fled to rooftops.

Siguet, 17, posted video of a ripped-up road where a bridge used to stand.

“There’s nothing left. There’s just a hole,” said the teenager, whose school was closed amid the destruction. “It was very violent.”

Vigicrues, the French agency that monitors rivers for flood risks, said water levels in the Aude region were higher than at any time since 1891.

French President Emmanuel Macron planned to visit the flooded region “as soon as possible.” In Egypt: The country’s main appeals court upheld a three-year prison sentence Monday against former President Mohammed Morsi, already jailed in other cases, over a conviction for insulting a sitting judge. The Court of Cassation upheld the same sentence for Morsi and fined the former Islamist leader $60,000.