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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 7 OctOber 2020
Floods in France, Italy swept bodies out of cemeteries

By DANIEL COLE a torrent of mud, rocks and
Associated Press debris.
BREIL-SUR-ROYA, France Longtime residents de-
(AP) — The grim job of scribe the damage in bib-
searching for flood victims lical terms, saying they'd
in Alpine villages and on never seen anything like it.
the nearby French and Ital- Some have started to
ian coasts has grown even clean up, spending their
more gruesome: Along with whole day shoveling mud
storm casualties, authorities out of shops and homes
say corpses from cemeter- while trucks hauled away
ies have also been found felled trees to clear streets
around the Mediterranean and roads. Cars coated in
shore, apparently swept caked mud were piled on
down the mountain by vio- top of each other.
lent rains. "It's a catastrophic situ-
A total of 12 deaths have ation," said Georges Po-
been reported since the marede, a retired police
storm pounded France's officer clearing out his
Alpes-Maritimes region and home in Breil-sur-Roya. "All
Italy's northwestern regions of that is gone, no more
of Liguria and Piedmont campground, no stadium,
starting Friday – four on the no more swimming pool,
French side, eight on the This photo released by the French Securite Civile Monday Oct.5, 2020 shows a man standing in no more shops, a hotel is
Italian side. the middle of a flooded street in Breil-sur-Roya, near the border with Italy, Saturday Oct. 3, 2020. gone ... entire houses swal-
Prime Minister Jean Castex Associated Press lowed by the floods. It's a
said French rescuers were phenomenal disaster."
still searching Tuesday for el Macron will visit the area were clearly distinguishable and cleanup effort, ac- Some roads were still
21 people missing. Wednesday. from recent storm victims, cording to a spokesman blocked by debris Tuesday,
"My thoughts go to griev- Corpses unearthed from the French spokeswoman for France's national gen- so helicopters were deliv-
ing families, those who are cemeteries have washed said. darme service. ering supplies to stranded
waiting to hear from their up on the Italian side, a Local authorities have said Police are going door-to- populations, like in the vil-
relatives or who have lost spokeswoman for the cemeteries in the French door to check on people lage of Saint-Martin-Ve-
everything," he said at the Alpes-Maritimes regional towns of Saint-Martin-de- reported as missing in ham- subie.
National Assembly. administration told The As- Vesubie and Tende were lets where roads, electric- Alain Gallo, 74, said a big
Castex said more than 900 sociated Press. She could partially washed out by the ity, communications and wave came down river.
rescuers, 500 police officers not say how many or where floods. Tende Mayor Jean- water supplies were cut off "The trees started flying
and some troops were in- they came from, and it was Pierre Vassallo told Le Pa- by the storm, the spokes- around and when I saw this
volved in the emergency unclear whether the bod- risien newspaper that the man said. (my wife and I) got into the
operation in the mountain- ies were among the eight village cemetery "was cut Neither spokesperson was car and left."
ous region, which is home reported dead in Italy from in two" and bodies were authorized to be publicly Another resident, Alain Pal-
to 12,000 residents. the storm. Italian local au- unearthed. named according to offi- lanca, was evacuated in a
He added that about 700 thorities could not immedi- Forensic police working cial policy. bus to the city of Nice. "The
people were staying in ho- ately be reached for com- to identify the dead are In Breil-sur-Roya, the river water, it was as fast as a
tels or other accommoda- ment. among the security forces, that runs through the vil- Formula 1 (car), faster than
tion sites after being evac- The cemetery corpses were firefighters, rescue divers lage of 2,000 residents, usu- 300 kilometers per hour and
uated from their homes. in such an advanced state and others helping Tuesday ally known for trout fishing, it wiped away everything in
French President Emmanu- of decomposition that they in the continuing search turned during the storm into its path," he said.q

EU says that no-deal Brexit becoming ever more likely

BRUSSELS (AP) — A top European Union of- to make sure it could leave on Jan. 31.
ficial dealing with the United Kingdom said Sefcovic said it made Britain less trustwor-
Tuesday that a cliff-edge rupture between thy and called the plans "a heavy blow
the two without even a basic trade deal to the British signature and reliability. Re-
by the end of the year is becoming more specting agreements is first a matter of
likely by the day. law, but also of trust and in good faith."
European Commission Vice President Ma- He said the plans left the EU with no choice
ros Sefcovic told the European Parliament but to launch legal action against Britain.
that "time is short" to reach a deal before If passed into law, the Internal Market
a Brexit divorce transition period ends by Bill would undermine the EU's previously
year's end, effectively giving negotiators agreed oversight of trade to and from
less than four weeks to broker a deal which Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K
must subsequently go through a lengthy and shares a border with EU member Ire-
approval process. And he pointed his fin- land. The bloc is furious that Britain plans
ger at British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to breach portions of the withdrawal trea- Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Inter-
for making things even more difficult when ty that were put in place to maintain an institutional relations and Foresight, Maros Sefcovic, speaks dur-
he decided last month to introduce a bill open Irish border, which has underpinned ing a media conference after the third meeting of the EU-UK
that breaches the legally binding With- peace since Northern Ireland's 1998 Good Joint Committee at EU headquarters in Brussels, Monday, Sept.
28, 2020.
drawal Agreement it struck with the bloc Friday accord. q Associated Press