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Rescue workers searched for the missing people using boats and from the air
Photo: Clement Mahoudeau / AFP
Seven people are missing after violent storms in the south of France.
The missing people's cars had been found, but not the occupants, French Interior Minister Gérald Darman told broadcaster BFMTV on Sunday.
Rescue workers were looking, among other things, for a man and his four- and 13-year-old children who were surprised by the floods late Saturday evening on a bridge over the Gardon River in Dion, north of Nîmes, as the prefecture of Nîmes announced on Sunday.
The children's mother was rescued and taken to the hospital.
In Dion in the Gard department, a helicopter took part in the search on Sunday and flew over the raging Gardon.
The fire department was also on duty and was supported by rescue dogs and drones.
The other missing people were probably also washed away in their cars from flooded bridges.
A Belgian man was also reported missing on Saturday evening after he tried to cross a bridge in Gagnière.
An emergency call was received from a car in Goudargues early on Sunday morning, and contact was lost shortly afterwards.
According to initial investigations, the callers were two women who were on their way to Spain.
Another man is missing in the village of Saint-Martin-de Valamas in the neighboring Ardèche department.
The orange warning level was declared in Le Gard and six other departments on Saturday due to very heavy rainfall caused by the storm “Monica”.
The severe weather warning is still in effect in ten regions.
Several thousand households north of Nice in the border region with Italy were temporarily without power.
czl/AFP/dpa