French floods and storms kill at least 16

Torrential rains that battered southeast France for two days subsided today, letting authorities assess the damage from floods that submerged villages and killed at least 16 people.

Rescuers were still searching for almost a dozen people believed missing in areas around the Gard region, which was hit hardest.

Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy surveyed the area by helicopter today and were later visiting flood victims at a shelter.

During his visit, Raffarin pledged €10m in emergency aid to the region, local media said.

Train services remained suspended across parts of southern France and many roads remained closed, still submerged under water or badly damaged.

Electricity was slowly being restored, but 15,000 homes were still without power, and 150,000 telephone lines had been cut, according to LCI television.

Fourteen of those killed were from the area around Nimes, a town with well-known Roman ruins.

It was not immediately clear to what extent, if any, the ruins in Nimes and elsewhere in the region were damaged.

A bolt of lightning killed a man in the Vaucluse region, east of the Gard. To the southwest, in the Herault region, a 43-year-old firefighter died from injuries, officials said.

Emergency teams rushed overnight to the village of Aramon, near Nimes, after a dam burst its banks and left most of the village submerged, officials said. Rescue units said they were still searching for three residents.

Violent rainstorms that started on Sunday caused rivers to burst their banks and forced more than 1,000 people to flee their homes.