Seven people, including two children and one person from Belgium, have been reported missing in France’s Gard region following intense storms.
Gard and eight other departments have been placed on orange alert for flooding by Meteo-France due to the heavy rain linked to the Monica storm which swept through a large part of south-eastern France. The storm has so far left at least seven people missing.
The first incident occurred in Dion, north of Nîmes. A family of four, with two children aged 4 and 13 years, were swept away by currents when they tried crossing a bridge over the Gardon.
They contacted emergency services after embarking onto the bridge to get help, but their car was dragged by the water before help could arrive. The vehicle was still undiscovered on Sunday morning.
The mother, a woman in her 40s, was found by firefighters and taken to hospital. Her husband and their two children – aged 4 and 13 – are still missing.
Belgians missing
Originally, it was reported that three people with Belgian nationality had also gone missing due to the heavy rain and flooding, but the Foreign Office has since stated it has been notified of just one Belgian who went missing in the storm in the French Department of Gard.
The ministry stated that two men of Belgian nationality – a 42-year-old man and his father-in-law, aged 60, who had lived in the area for many years – were involved in an incident in Gagnières, in the north of the department. On Saturday evening at around 19:45, their car was dragged away by the currents while attempting to cross a bridge here.
The road had been closed by local authorities and police officers had directly instructed the driver not to progress onto the bridge. The younger man was able to pull himself to safety through the roof of the car and was rescued by the fire brigade and taken to hospital. His father-in-law is still missing.
Their car has been located since and later on Sunday, emergency services found a lifeless body on Sunday, but the identity has not been confirmed.
In Goudargues, in north-eastern Gard, two women have been missing since 05:00 on Sunday morning, also after driving their car along a river bridge. There was also talk in local media that both were Belgian, but that is not true, Foreign Affairs told Belga News Agency.
"Local authorities have confirmed to Belgium's consulate general in Marseille that the incidents that occurred in Goudargues do not involve Belgian nationals."
Finally, the Ardèche prefecture reported that a man had gone missing in Saint Martin-de-Valamas. Emergency services have launched a search operation there.
The code orange level that has been issued is the third out of a four-level scale and calls for the public to be "very vigilant" due to "dangerous expected phenomena". It is advised to avoid travel and stay away from rivers.
This article was updated to include information from the Foreign Office at 17:00 on Sunday.
