Paris : Powerful storms battered central and southern Europe, killing at least 13 people including three children.
The deaths, most from falling trees, were reported in Italy and Austria, and on the French island of Corsica. Heavy rain and winds wrecked campsites on the island, while in Venice, Italy, masonry was blown off the belltower of St Mark’s Basilica.
The storms follow weeks of heatwave and drought across much of the continent.
A 13-year-old girl was killed by a falling tree on a campsite. A man died in a similar incident and an elderly woman was killed when her car was hit by the detached roof of a beach hut. Two other people, a fisherman and a female kayaker, died out at sea, the BBC reported.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who has arrived in Corsica to inspect storm damage, reported a sixth death. Dozens more people were injured on both land and sea.
Witnesses to the storms said they had been completely unexpected and no warning was given.
In Austria two girls were killed by a falling tree near a lake in Carinthia. Later, three more deaths were reported by media in Lower Austria province, also as a result of a falling tree.
In Italy, a man and a woman were killed by falling trees in separate incidents in the region of Tuscany.
High winds swept through Venice dislodging brickwork from the cathedral belltower, the BBC report said.
