A horse and donkey stand in floodwaters on a farm at Pertuis, southern France, on 2 December 2019. (AFP)
Three people were swept to their deaths by floodwaters in the south of France and three emergency workers were killed when their helicopter crashed while seeking to rescue victims, officials said Monday.
Twelve people have now been killed in the last 10 days in southeastern France, which has been battered by two successive late autumn storms bringing torrential rain, heavy flooding and high winds.
The EC145 helicopter lost radio and radar contact while on a rescue and reconnaissance flight in the Var region on Sunday night.
The pilot, a technician and a rescue specialist from the fire brigade were found dead at 1:30 am (00:30 GMT) near the town of Rove, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said in a statement.
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Investigators are trying to determine the circumstances of the crash. Fog might have caused bad visibility at the time.
President Emmanuel Macron said in a message on Twitter that the whole country supported the rescuers’ families and colleagues.
The crash came as Macron honored 13 French soldiers who died when their helicopters collided in Mali last week in an operation against jihadists.
“While France is preparing today to pay tribute to 13 of its soldiers who died serving it (in Mali), our country is losing three everyday heroes who gave their lives to protect the French,” Castaner said.
Three other people were killed on Sunday by the floods in the French Riviera region, which has been hit by torrential rains a week after extreme weather left six dead.
In the Var region, a shepherd was swept away as he was trying to cross a river in his jeep while tending to his flock.
His body was found in his vehicle late Sunday night about 300 meters (330 yards) downstream from where he was last seen, the prefecture said early Monday.
Elsewhere in the region, a stable owner was found dead two hours after he was also washed away while out watching over his animals, the prefecture said.
And the body of a woman who had been missing after her car was overwhelmed by the floodwaters was found by her brother close to the town of Manosque, a source close to the investigation said.
The Var and the neighboring Alpes-Maritimes region had been on red alert for floods, which disrupted train services and cut the A8 motorway for four hours Sunday evening.
Many cultural and sporting events were also called off due to the bad weather, including Paris Saint-Germain’s Ligue 1 match at Monaco.
