Victims drown in their cars as 16 feared dead in French riviera flash floods

At least 10 people are dead following flooding caused by torrential rain in France’s Cote d'Azur region. Another six people are still missing after the area, and farther north in Alpes-Maritimes, was hit by the downpour on Saturday evening. The first three victims died as their Biot retirement home flooded after the nearby River Brague burst its banks. At least five other people were believed to have been killed when they tried to park their cars under shelter, three people drowned in their cars after becoming stuck inside a tunnel and a woman in her 60s died on the street in Cannes. Another victim died at a campsite in Antibes, where rescue helicopters airlifted others to safety from the rooftops of their caravans.

Some cars were carried off into the sea. We have rescued a lot of people, and we must now be vigilant against looting.

Cannes Mayor Davis Lisnard

Thousands of homes were left without electricity and up to 500 tourists, mostly British and Danish nationals were stuck overnight at Nice airport and hundreds more stranded for the night at a concert venue after attending a show by rocker Johnny Hallyday.French officials say the flooding closed the A8 motorway and Cannes railway station, while in Nice, a football game in the country’s first division was abandoned halfway through owing to rain. French president Francois Hollande promised aid for residents and appealed for the “solidarity of the nation” as he travelled to the area with interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve to see the damage for himself.

It was slow in the beginning and, in an instant, it was ten times worse. Before we knew it, within 20 minutes, you couldn’t see the sidewalks even. There were rapids.

Witness John Canavan, in Cannes

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