A tornado tore through a village in southwestern France yesterday, injuring 41 people and damaging hundreds of homes, according to local authorities.
French authorities had issued an orange alert for storms across large portions of the southwest, with numerous areas suffering power outages and transport disruptions.
France sees several dozen tornadoes per year on average.
In the Aude department, officials cancelled the third stage of the Vuelta a Espana cycling race, which was being held in the area, when a hailstorm forced riders to seek shelter.
The tornado hit hardest in Pomas, a village with a population of 1,000, damaging an estimated 300 homes and in some cases, ripping their roofs off.
Fifteen of the injured were taken to hospital, including a pregnant woman who was hurt when her house collapsed.
The impact of global warming on their frequency and intensity is unclear, according to Meteo-France.
More than 120 emergency workers were deployed to the scene, local authorities said.
The national weather service, Meteo-France, said winds had reached up to 117 km/h in the nearby village of Arquettes-en-Val.
Storms across southern France caused chaos on the local transportation network, delaying trains, forcing road closures and causing delays and cancellations at airports in Bordeaux, Marseille, Nice, Toulouse and even Paris to the north, Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said.
An estimated 2,800 homes were left without electricity across 10 villages, according to French officials.