Severe Storms Batter France, Killing Two

Severe storms that swept across France overnight after a prolonged heat wave killed at least two people.

In the central department of Haute-Vienne, a woman was killed when a tree fell on her. In the eastern village of Dolomieu, a man died after suffering severe burns when lightning struck his workshop, sparking a fire.

According to electricity distributor Enedis, about 53,000 households remained without power on Friday morning. The outages were concentrated in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in southeastern France and Nouvelle-Aquitaine in the southwest.

Météo-France, which had warned of thunderstorms, hail and strong winds from the Massif Central to the Alps, lifted its orange weather alert for all affected southeastern departments on Friday.

(Reuters, Max)