A tornado tore through a village in southwestern France on Monday (24 August), injuring 41 people and damaging hundreds of homes.
The tornado hit hardest in the village of Pomas, population 1,000, located between Carcassonne and Limoux. It damaged an estimated 300 homes, in some cases ripping their roofs off.
"More than 120 firefighters are on the scene" and reinforcements from neighbouring departments are expected, according to the prefecture of the Aude department, which added that "operations to secure buildings are under way".
The injured include a pregnant woman who was hurt when her house collapsed on her, her husband told AFP.
Videos posted on social media show a powerful vortex of wind moving through several communities in the department beneath stormy skies.
The national weather service, Meteo-France, said winds had reached up to 117 kilometres (73 miles) per hour in the nearby village of Arquettes-en-Val.
Aude: Tornado in France
French authorities had placed swathes of the country's southwest on orange alert for storms, and numerous areas were hit by power outages and transport chaos.
In Aude, officials cancelled the third stage of the Vuelta a Espana cycling race, which was being held in the area, when a hailstorm forced riders to seek shelter.
Storms across southern France upended the transportation network, delaying trains, forcing road closures, and causing delays and cancellations at airports in Bordeaux, Marseille, Nice, Toulouse and even Paris to the north, said Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot.
France sees several dozen tornadoes per year on average.
The impact of global warming on their frequency and intensity is unclear, according to Meteo-France.
By 7.30pm, 2,800 households were still without electricity in about ten communes in Aude.
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