"Exceptional" floods were recorded by Météo-France (Illustration) -

Sylvain Thomas AFP

  • Two firefighters are among the ten people wanted this Friday evening.

  • Accumulations of rain and “exceptional” floods were recorded by Météo France.

The toll suddenly rose after 11 p.m.

Ten people including two firefighters are now wanted by the emergency services this Friday evening in the Nice region, which experienced intense rains causing floods qualified as "exceptional" by Météo-France.

“They are a firefighter officer and a volunteer firefighter, who were taken away in their vehicle.

Colleagues saw them go into the water in Bollène-Vésubie, ”said MP LR Eric Ciotti, present at the fire brigade operation center.

People "supposedly missing"

Two inhabitants of Roquebillière, a town of 1,800 inhabitants in the Vésubie valley, about fifty kilometers north of Nice, are still missing.

These two people who "had taken refuge on the roof of their house surrounded by water and the house collapsed with the two people on it", explained Philippe Loos, secretary general of the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes.

A third person is also missing in Tende, in the Roya valley.

And, according to the last report of the firefighters, five other people were wanted, without details on the municipalities where they had been seen for the last time.

Earlier in the evening, the prefecture indicated that it had received reports "where witnesses reported people at the water's edge and who were no longer there some time later, so no precise report but we still have triggered relief, ”also said Philippe Loos.

The authorities speak of people "supposedly missing".

Villages today cut off from the world

The secretary general of the prefecture describes an "unprecedented situation, with large areas affected", "villages today cut off from the world following landslides".

91 people were "brought to safety" in the evening by the firefighters.

In the afternoon, a bridge collapsed washed away by the flooding of a river near Saint-Martin-Vésubie, a locality of some 1,400 inhabitants in the same area, according to firefighters.

"The damage is considerable" in this town, "which is the epicenter of the phenomenon", had detailed earlier Eric Ciotti, specifying that there was "235 mm of water in a few hours".

According to him, the village gas station was washed away, "houses were badly damaged, the stadium and the cemetery are drowned".

Up to 500 mm of precipitation

In its 11 p.m. bulletin, Météo-France, which placed the department in red vigilance, predicted that the cumulative rainfall expected over the entire episode will reach up to 500 mm from time to time.

"The thunderstorms fade in the second part of the night from Friday to Saturday," announces the meteorological monitoring institute, warning against a wave-submersion phenomenon in the Nice area.

Coming out of bed, the Var, in turmoil, completely invaded the roadway as we approached Nice airport.

Météo-France described the flooding of this watercourse "exceptional." Flights to Nice have been suspended and all stations in the department are closed and no train will run before midday on Saturday.

Nice

A bridge collapses in the Vésubie valley

Nice

Motorway, schools and shopping centers closed ... Alpes-Maritimes facing storm Alex

  • Severe weather

  • Flood

  • Storm

  • Nice

  • Flood