PARIS (Reuters) -A 45-year-old German man has died in Corsica after he was washed away by rapidly rising water in a storm, the island’s authorities said on Thursday.
The man was bathing in the river Fango near the town of Galeria with his wife and two daughters on Thursday afternoon when a torrent of water came down from nearby mountains during a storm and washed them away, Corsica Prefect Michel Prosic said on BFM television.
Franceinfo radio reported that the wife, aged 39, and the daughters, aged 9 and 13, were saved by rescuers. The man’s body was found two hours later.
The entire island is on orange weather alert, with wind gusts of up to 170 km (106 miles) per hour expected on Thursday night and Friday. The prefect said that ships have been ordered to remain at quay island-wide and that 90% of all flights have been cancelled.
Storm Benjamin is causing heavy rain and wind gusts of up to 80 km per hour along France’s Channel coast and the Atlantic coast, the Meteo France weather service said. Orange weather alerts have been issued for several regions on Friday, including parts of Corsica, northern France and the Channel coast and the Mediterranean coast.
(Geert De Clercq; editing by Diane Craft)
