A tornado tore through the village of Pomas in the Aude department of southwestern France on Monday afternoon, leaving two people missing and at least 42 injured, local authorities said.
The tornado struck the commune at around 5:20pm local time (6:20pm in Greece), the prefecture of Aude announced.
Local authorities said 41 of the injured received medical treatment. Five had to be taken to hospital, including a pregnant woman who was hurt when part of her house collapsed. Gendarmerie officials said a sofa saved her life when a wall came down on top of her.
The Aude prefecture said around 100 homes had been damaged by the storm. Two shelters were opened so that residents forced from their homes could spend the night there.
Footage circulating on French media and social networks showed the tornado's destructive path through the village. One video, shared by a social media user, showed a resident bracing against a window to stop it shattering as the storm passed close by.
Roads closed, thousands without power
Several roads in the department were closed because of fallen trees, and also to allow rescue crews easier access to the affected areas, local authorities said.
By around 7:30pm, roughly 2,800 households across 10 municipalities were left without electricity.
Other footage shared online showed damage from the same storm system near Carcassonne, including from the commune of Verzeille. One post described the tornado's intensity as being between EF-2 and EF-3 on the scale used to rate tornado strength, though this was not confirmed by official sources.
Orange alert and a cancelled Vuelta stage
France's national weather service had issued an orange alert, the second-highest level, for dangerous weather conditions across 20 departments in southern France, including Aude.
The third stage of the Vuelta a España, one of cycling's three Grand Tours alongside the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, had started in Aude that day. The stage was permanently stopped because of a hailstorm that forced riders to seek shelter roughly 20 kilometres from the finish line, in the neighbouring department of Pyrénées-Orientales.
