Storm Alex, illustration -

Daniel Cole / AP / SIPA

The bodies found on the Italian coasts are in a state of "great decomposition" and "must very probably correspond" to the coffins carried away in the floods of French cemeteries, declared on Monday the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes.

Several bodies were found on a beach in Liguria, Italy on Sunday, two days after severe weather strikes in south-eastern France and northern Italy.

"It is not a question of recent deaths (…) but of old corpses which must correspond to the bodies of cemeteries engulfed by the floods of water", again declared the prefect Bernard Gonzalez.

Difficult to identify

“We are in the process of gathering elements to identify them.

But it is difficult because they were found naked and we do not have any identification elements ”, explained this Monday morning the coast guard Giuseppe Semeraro, of the port of Imperia.

According to the prefect, the toll on the French side was still four dead and several missing people.

These disappearances are based on "credible and direct testimonies," he said.

Let the emergency services act

Finally, bad weather left at least 2 dead in northern Italy, Piedmont and Val d'Aosta, a few hundred kilometers away - a 53-year-old volunteer firefighter and a man who drowned when his car fell into a river.

The prefect also announced that he had taken a decree to prohibit frequenting the massifs of the Alpes-Maritimes for "at least 15 days" to allow high mountain rescue services to focus on disaster relief.

Nice

Storm Alex: At least four dead in France and Italy after extraordinary floods

Nice

Storm Alex: Makeshift zip line, human chains… In Breil-sur-Roya, we get organized after the devastating floods

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