German tourist killed by violent storms in south-eastern France

Firefighters from southeastern France, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, were inundated with hundreds of emergency calls after the violent hailstorm hit nine departments on Saturday afternoon. In Haute-Savoie, a woman was killed by a falling tree.

The 51-year-old German woman was killed when a tree fell on her caravan parked in a campsite in Taninges in Haute-Savoie.

Elsewhere in Savoie, the storm caused floods and material damage. Firefighters were called in at least 30 times.

Several trees fell on SNCF train lines, particularly between Chambéry and Montmélian. Police opened a nearby gym to allow people to shelter while waiting for delays.

Natural disaster area to declare
The departments of Haute-Savoie as well as Haute-Loire, Loire, Rhône, Drôme, Ardèche, Ain, Isère and Savoie were clbadified in the category "alert to the orange storm "which was lifted Saturday in the late afternoon.

The French Minister of Agriculture, Didier Guillaume, announced Sunday that a zone of natural disaster would be declared in the coming hours.

"The zone will be defined in the next 48 hours," Guillaume told France Info, referring to the damage in the Drôme.

Hi the size of the tennis balls
The firefighters were called about 200 times to help the people around the town of Romans-sur-Isère, where farmers were particularly affected by the storm.

A dozen people were treated for minor injuries and 2,300 households were deprived of electricity until the evening.

"It was apocalyptic," Marie-Hélène Thoravaldes, mayor of the city, told Info France.

Although the storm lasted only about 15 minutes, she was extremely violent, with hail stones the size of tennis balls covering certain areas, she said.

A dead man in Lake Geneva, damaged regatta boats

The bad weather also hit Western Switzerland on Saturday afternoon, bringing hail and winds reaching 110 km / h, according to the national forecaster MeteoSwiss.

A woman drowned in Lake Geneva when her boat sank, police said.

A man who was in the same boat was able to swim to another ship from where he fired "two fires," police spokesman Joanna Matta told AFP. region) of Geneva.

The victim, whose nationality remains unknown, was then taken to a Geneva hospital where she was pronounced dead.

During another incident, the storm also damaged some of the 465 boats participating in the 81st edition of the Golden Bowl, an annual regatta on Lake Geneva, the press service announced. event.