A British woman killed in the flooding in southern France at the weekend has been named as Linda Martinez.
The 62-year-old from Lancashire is believed to have drowned when a river flowing past the campsite where she was staying with her husband burst its banks.
They had been at the Pylône campsite, near Antibes, when the river Brague swelled and inundated the site. Martinez was found dead in her caravan after the flood.
Carlo Martinez, 72, is understood to be in hospital after suffering a heart attack. It is not known whether he suffered the attack during the flooding or after discovering his wife had drowned.
The Foreign Office confirmed on Tuesday that Linda Martinez was the British national killed in the flood after relatives gave permission for her name to be released.
She was among 19 people feared dead after violent storms and severe flooding swept the Riviera. Three people drowned in a retirement home after it was flooded.
Martinez had recently retired from her role as an administrator at Edge Hill University’s Ormskirk campus. A former colleague told the Guardian the couple had a caravan in the south of France, where they holidayed regularly.
Former colleagues had been trying to reach the couple since hearing of the flooding but without success, she said.
A neighbour at the couple’s home in Haskayne, a village near Ormskirk, confirmed the couple had gone on holiday and that she had heard of the tragedy.
