Six bodies washed up on Italian Riviera are thought to be French flood victims, with death toll set to rise

The bodies are thought to have been swept away by the floodwaters and carried to Italy

Credit:  SDIS 06

At least six bodies have washed up on the coast of northwestern Italy, with the authorities saying they believe they are French victims of fierce storms that hit southern France over the weekend.

The six victims found in Italy — five men and a woman — are thought to have died in southern France during storms and floods, their bodies then washed out to sea and carried by currents across the border to the Italian Riviera.

In France, local authorities say that four people have been confirmed dead, eight others swept away by floods are “missing” and a further 12 “presumed missing”.

“I fear that the death toll will unfortunately climb as we investigate on the ground,” warned Charles-Ange Ginésy, head of the Alpes-Maritimes departmental council.

Italian officials said the six bodies found on their shores had not yet been identified because they had been stripped of their clothing and badly mangled by the force of the floodwater and by the time they had spent at sea.

Up to 50cm of rain fell in less than 10 hours, an unprecedented amount

Credit: FEDERICO SCOPPA/AFP

They were found on beaches at Ventimiglia, an Italian border town, at Sanremo, famous for its annual music festival, and on other Riviera beaches.

The bodies were found amid mountains of debris washed up on the beaches, from tree trunks to plastic and even car parts.

Italian authorities are taking fingerprints from the corpses in an effort to identify them. The bodies were spotted by passersby from the coast and recovered from police, firemen and emergency workers from the Civil Protection agency.

Storm Alex brought flash floods and torrential rain to parts of France and the Italian regions of Piedmont, Liguria and Val d’Aosta. In the most severely affected areas, around 2ft of rain fell within 24 hours.

In France, almost 1,000 firefighters were this weekend drafted into the Alpes-Maritimes region to search for the missing and re-establish communications.

Up to 500mm of rain fell in less than 10 hours, a volume not seen since records began, according to French prime minister Jean Castex, who inspected the damage by helicopter on Saturday.

President Emmanuel Macron is due to visit the area later this week.

Eric Ciotti, head of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, said the floods had inflicted damage on local homes and infrastructure that will cost an estimated billion euros to repair.

Ten trucks of food aid are being dispatched to the area from Nice, whose deputy mayor Philippe Pradal said: “There’s nothing left.”