Massive amounts of rain
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Heavy rainfall has caused flooding, evacuations and closed highways and railroad lines in parts of France. In Paris, a man was killed by a falling tree on Thursday evening, according to media reports. Two children aged three and five were injured.
The weather service Météo France issued the highest warning level of red for six departments in the southern half of the country and orange in 34 departments.
Hundreds of people evacuated
More rain fell in the evening. In the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, around 900 people and a number of schools had to be evacuated and television footage showed flooded highways, supermarkets and cars floating in the water. A number of schools and kindergartens in the region were closed up to and including Saturday.
The highway and the railroad line between Lyon and Saint-Étienne were interrupted. The state railroad SNCF announced that no trains would be able to run between the two cities for several days. According to the prefecture, it was also unclear when the highway would be open again. The highway operator Vinci Autoroutes warned in the evening of possible obstructions on over 30 French highways.
Thousands of firefighters in action
According to the Ministry of the Interior, 1500 firefighters were deployed and sirens were blaring in many towns. Everything was being done to help the people affected, said Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau in Paris. The authorities issued an urgent warning against entering flooded areas on foot or by car.
There was also extreme rainfall in Paris; according to meteorologists, more rain fell in one hour than in two weeks. Some metro stations were closed due to flooding.
"Linked to climate change"
"We are dealing with a situation that is unprecedented in its scale", said Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister for Ecological Transition. Locally, 60 centimetres of precipitation had fallen within 48 hours, which was "absolutely massive". "This has not happened in living memory." The minister warned: "We are collectively confronted with episodes that are related to climate change and that we will experience more and more regularly, we have to prepare for them." A crisis team has been set up at the ministry. All relevant services have been mobilized, it said.
Following the flooding of a supermarket in the town of Givors on the Rhone, where 47 people were still temporarily trapped in the evening, the Carrefour supermarket chain closed more of its stores in Nice, Cannes, Monaco and Antibes as a precautionary measure. According to Carrefour managing director Alexandre Bompard, 39 employees as well as 8 customers and employees of other stores were initially on the upper floor of the flooded supermarket. They were taken out of the building by the fire department in the evening.
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