A British woman is among at least six people to have been killed in freak storms ripping through the French island of Corsica.
Around 2.30 pm on Thursday the maritime agency announced rescuers had found the body of an Englishwoman after her husband sounded the alarm.
She had disappeared during a kayak trip to the fishing village of Erbalunga, on Cap Corse on the north of the island, local media reports.
A 13-year-old girl was also among the victims after a tree fell on a campsite where she was staying in the south.
At least 12 others were injured as wind gusts of up to 140 miles per hour hit the Mediterranean island for the third day in a row.
At a nearby beach in Coggia, a 72-year-old woman died in her car after the roof of a beachside hut was ripped off by wind and landed on it.
A 46-year-old man was killed at a campsite near Calvi, one of the main towns.
A 62-year-old fisherman's body was also discovered and authorities said they and the Englishwoman both died as a result of the sudden storm and that more than 100 grounded, wrecked or stranded ships in the area had called for emergency help.
The Meteo France weather service has since issued another severe weather alert for Corsica, but said it “expected wind gusts with storms overnight to Friday will be much less violent than those on Thursday morning”.
Didier Bicchieray, deputy mayor of Calvi, on the northwest coast of Corsica, described the storm as “30 minutes of hell”. He told Radio France that he had never heard such a deafening noise or seen anything like it in his life.
On the island, around 45,000 homes were left without electricity on Thursday which came as a huge shock as Meteo France had not given advance warning and said the exact location of the storms was hard to predict.
It only issued an alert with “immediate effect” as strong winds began to hit the island.
“We were a bit surprised by the force of the gusts, which were absolutely exceptional and had never been observed there before,” said Christophe Morel, the chief duty forecaster.
Meanwhile, in northern Italy a storm forced the closure of a rail line after high winds carried beach structures onto the tracks, damaging the electricals.
