At least seven people died in violent storms on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica and in Tuscany in Italy. There were also a number of injuries in both regions, it said on Thursday.
As the prefecture in Corsica announced, a 13-year-old girl was hit by a tree at a campsite on the west coast. A 72-year-old died on a beach when the roof of a beach hut fell on her car. A dead kayaker was found on the east coast, a dead fisherman on the west side of the island. France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who was expected on the island in the evening, named another dead man. Gusts with a speed of more than 200 kilometers per hour moved over Corsica. Twelve people were injured in the south of the island. 45,000 households were without electricity.
Storms and flooded roads also hit other parts of France, such as Marseille. In Tuscany, a man and woman were hit by falling trees near the city of Lucca and in the coastal town of Carrara, multiple media outlets reported. There was a severe weather warning for the north of the country to South Tyrol and large parts of central Italy. Some people suffered injuries in the violent storms with more than 100 kilometers per hour and heavy rain, for example at a campsite in Marina di Massa, Tuscany, when trees fell there.
The Regional President of Tuscany, Eugenio Giani, shared a video on Twitter from the seaside town of Piombino, on which a Ferris wheel was spun by the strong wind. Other photos showed cars crushed by trees and devastated beaches. In the northern coastal region of Liguria and in Tuscany, which is popular with holidaymakers, the fire brigade counted more than 150 operations by the afternoon. A violent storm also swept through the northern Italian lagoon city of Venice, knocking down umbrellas and tables in the streets. According to Ansa, pieces of the wall broke off the church tower at the famous St. Mark’s Basilica in the center. The civil defense also called a crisis team in the afternoon because of the storms in central and northern Italy.