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Social media videos show the huge tornado above Verzeille
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A huge tornado has swept through a region of France, causing chaos and destruction in its path.
The weather phenomenon struck Aude in southern France late on Monday, damaging more than 300 homes and injuring 41 people.
Shock social media footage showed the tornado swirling above the village of Verzeille late on Monday. Many of the homes caught up in its path had their windows smashed as a result of the high winds.
The local administration said gusts of up to 117 km/h were recorded, with the strongest winds hitting the commune of Pomas and its 1,000 residents.
The tornado struck just as part of the region was on orange alert. Local authorities said a total of 41 people were injured, 15 of whom were taken to hospital, and 300 homes were damaged.
The tornado formed at roughly 5.20pm on Monday afternoon.
Social media was awash with videos of the large tornado surrounded by dark stormy skies.
"More than 120 firefighters are on the scene" the prefecture of the Aude department said on Friday, adding that "work to make the buildings safe is under way". By 7.30pm on Monday, 2,800 households in the Aude area were still without electricity.
The tornado hit as this summer's intense heatwave gave way this week to thunderstorms in many areas of France.
The country was facing its driest year on record, with wildfire spreading across the country through the summer.
At their peak, fires in France and Spain alone drove some 330,000 people from homes and vacation sites, stretching firefighters, aircraft and emergency services across simultaneous crises.
Europe is Earth’s fastest-warming continent, heating at more than twice the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus climate service. Rising temperatures and prolonged drought dry vegetation, allowing fires to spread faster and burn more intensely.
A study, released by the World Weather Attribution group, found that human-caused warming made the hot, dry and windy conditions that fuelled the fires at least twice as likely in south-western France and at least 20 times as likely in central Spain. The scientists described both figures as conservative estimates.
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