Corpses from coffins among those swept away as floods kill at least 12
FOUR more bodies were discovered yesterday on the French side of the border with Italy after severe mountain flooding ravaged parts of both countries, leaving at least 12 dead. Hundreds of rescue workers were searching for up to 20 other people still missing.
Flooding devastated mountainous areas in France’s south-eastern Alpes-Maritimes region and Italy’s northwestern regions of Liguria and Piedmont after a storm on Friday and Saturday.
The identities of some of the bodies were uncertain with the head of France’s Alpes-Maritimes region telling Matin newspaper that some bodies found in Italy were apparently corpses from coffins that had been swept across the border by the raging floodwaters.
Bernard Gonzalez said as of yesterday afternoon, two more bodies had been found in the region, bringing the total on the French side to four.
In Italy, a woman’s body was discovered in the Mediterranean Sea by the Ligurian province of Imperia. Five other bodies, all men, were found in the sea near San Remo, on the beach in the Italian border town of Ventimiglia and along the Imperia coast.
Mr Gonzalez said he had been in touch with Italian colleagues about bodies found on beaches of Liguria.
“The bodies found correspond to decomposing cadavers from our side... but it’s most likely the bodies
came from cemeteries swept away by the water,” the paper quoted him as saying. Procedures to identify the bodies were underway but he did not say exactly how many corpses were found.
Even animals weren’t spared from the powerful floodwaters rushing south from the hilly backcountry. A dead cow washed up on a beach in the French Riviera town of Saint-Laurent du Var.
In France, firefighters were still searching for at least eight missing people who witnesses described as possibly being carried off by floodwaters. They included two firefighters whose vehicle fell into the water as a road collapsed.
French rescuers were also seeking to locate 12 other people whose families have not heard from them since the storm, which blocked roads and cut off communications.
French authorities found the body of a shepherd who had disappeared in the mountains while a firefighter died in the border region of Valle d’Aosta.
The flooding has put additional stress on regions coping with the coronavirus pandemic. The governors of both Liguria and Piedmont have asked the Italian government for emergency aid.