Two days of torrential rain bring major flooding to central France

A rugby pitch is flooded in Givors, central France, after torrential rains and flooding submerged roads and railways (Laurent Cirpiani/AP)

France’s prime minister said on Friday that firefighters and other rescuers have been involved in about 2,300 operations, some of them lifesaving, in what appears to be the biggest flooding for 40 years in central France.

Michel Barnier visited French authorities’ crisis centre in Paris and said there had not been such violent rain in many people’s memory.