BORDEAUX - High winds have battered many parts of the country, after several days of unusually hot weather. Four people died in storms which battered southwest France during the night, according to a new toll given out by officials Wednesday. Nine people were badly hurt and 61 had less serious injuries. Around 160,000 homes suffered power cuts.

The storms were fiercest in the south-west, where winds reached almost 160km/h (100mph). Two people were killed at Biscarosse in the Landes area south of Bordeaux. One of them, a Dutchman, was killed by a falling tree on a camp site, police said. No details were immediately available for the second fatality. In the Pyrenees-Atlantiques, a driver of a scooter died when he lost control during a hailstorm and hit another vehicle. Another victim suffered a fatal stress-linked heart attack at a camp site in Gennes, near Saumur, while several fellow campers were injured by falling trees, a local official said.

At nearby Rosiers-sur-Loire seven people were injured when the barn in which they had sought refuge from the high winds collapsed. Another person was seriously injured by a falling beam. Elsewhere emergency services was repeatedly called out overnight to deal with collapsed roofs and toppled chimneys, flooding and fires as well as devastated camp sites and fallen trees blocking roads.

Copyright 2003 - AFP & WeatherOnline