Two people remain missing after a tornado struck the town of Pomas in the Aude department, within the Languedoc-Roussillon region, in the south of France, according to French authorities.
Rescue efforts are focused among the remains of a collapsed house, according to sources from the investigation cited by the French network BFMTV. As a result of the weather phenomenon, there are 26 people injured with varying degrees of severity, although all are stable, and the Prefecture of Aude has specified that five of them have had to be admitted to the hospital.
Local authorities have also indicated that around a hundred houses have suffered damage, which has forced the establishment of emergency accommodations to shelter affected residents.
For the night, a total of four departments remain on orange alert for thunderstorms, two fewer than in the previous bulletin issued by Météo France. The warning affects Bouches-du-Rhône, South Corsica, Upper Corsica, and Var.
Additionally, it has been reported that wind speed records have been surpassed in the southeastern area of the country. The Pézenas-Tourbes station, in the Hérault department, measured a gust of 121 km/h, exceeding the previous maximum record by three kilometers per hour, set in August 1999 with a gust of 118.8 km/h.
In the Vaucluse department, a gust of 146.5 km/h has been recorded. New monthly highs have also been reached at the Béziers-Cap d'Agde stations, in Aude, and in Salon-de-Provence, in Bouches-du-Rhône.