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Residents of La Rochelle are rescued from floods by a helicopter after severe storms swept western France - Source: Reuters -
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Storms swept through western Europe over the weekend, killing at
least 22 people in France, three in Spain and one in Portugal,
officials said.
Local authorities in France warned the toll could rise after three
people died on Saturday and another 19 on Sunday.
Some drowned, engulfed by giant waves, while others were hit by
falling trees and branches.
Two people were killed near the northern Spanish city of Burgos
when their car hit a fallen tree and a woman died when a wall fell
on her in north-western Spain.
Unusually strong winds also uprooted trees in many parts of
Portugal.
A girl of 10 died when she was hit by a falling tree.
Heavy rain lashed many parts of the country and several rivers rose
sharply, with flood warnings on Sunday for low-lying parts of
second city Porto along the Douro River estuary.
In France, coastal regions Vendee and Charente Maritime bore the
brunt of the storm and were placed on flood alert on Sunday
together with southern regions of Brittany.
Centuries-old trees were uprooted in the gardens of Versailles
castle, France Info radio said.
More than one million residents suffered power cuts, said ErDF, the
distribution arm of French energy group EDF, with Brittany and
central France worst affected.
High-speed TGV trains were severely delayed due to branches and
other debris obstructing the rail network, operator SNCF
said.
Meanwhile, Air France said it had cancelled more than 100 flights
on Sunday and more than half of all flights departing from Paris
were significantly delayed, Aeroports de Paris said.
Some areas of Spain also lost electricity but Spanish Interior
Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told a news conference it was
being restored.
Weather forecasters said the storm, named Xynthia, had moved to
France's north-east and Belgium and would hit Denmark next.
The Belgian meteorological institute forecast wind speeds of up to
120 km per hour from noon on Sunday, easing later in the day as the
storm moved to Denmark.
After battering France's northern regions, gusts of wind reaching
130 km per hour had reached Alsace and Lorraine by 1500 GMT, Meteo
France said on its website.
It added that the storms seemed less fierce than those that hit
France in Dec 1999 in which 92 people were killed.
Further north, much of England and Wales was on flood alert on
Sunday, with further prolonged heavy rain and strong winds expected
after torrential downpours overnight.
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