“There’s a huge castle and a third of it has collapsed, even though these are stones that have stood for 1,000 years,” a local resident named Pierre told Ici Occitanie.
The third stage of the Vuelta a España cycling competition was abruptly halted in the Aude area of southwestern France when a severe hailstorm forced competitors to seek shelter approximately 15 kilometers from the finish line.
According to officials, the severe weather left roughly 2,800 residences across 10 villages without power.
Local sub-prefect Emmanuelle Plantier-Lemarchand told French radio that no one had been reported missing. She revised the casualty count downward from 41 to 39, noting that 15 of those injured required hospital treatment.
“I heard this massive noise, then I saw everything flying through the air and my roof caved in,” a stunned resident named Chantal told French radio. “I’ve got no house left, that’s for certain.”
French authorities had earlier issued an orange alert for thunderstorms across much of the country’s southwest, a region already grappling with power outages and transportation disruptions.
Eyewitness video from the area captured the swirling vortex of the tornado looming on the horizon above houses and trees.
Photographs from the small village of Pomas, which sustained the most severe damage, revealed uprooted trees, wrecked vehicles, and scattered debris from demolished homes.
Meanwhile, flight delays and cancellations were reported at airports in Bordeaux, Marseille, Nice, Toulouse, and locations north of Paris, according to Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot.
France typically experiences several dozen tornadoes annually, according to the national weather service Météo-France.
This event follows a summer of unprecedented heatwaves and wildfires across Europe, with France’s southwest region among the hardest hit. An area of 42,000 hectares was scorched in one of the largest forest fires since World War Two.
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