Floods devastate southeast France

President Jacques Chirac paid a surprise visit yesterday to southeastern France, where devastating floods have claimed five lives and forced more than 10,000 people to evacuate their homes.

Road, rail and air traffic was disrupted by incessant rain and high winds, and four nuclear power reactors shut down as flooding along the Rhone River and its tributaries between Lyon and Marseille turned the region into a disaster area.

Mr Chirac, en route for a state visit to Tunis, flew low over stretches of submerged countryside and stopped off at the town of Valabre, between Marseille and Aix-en-Provence, for a briefing from fire officials as the flash floods reached their peak.

"In the face of this new catastrophe, my thoughts go to the victims and those who have lost everything," Mr Chirac said after his government announced 12 million euros in initial emergency funds for the region.

"I want to tell them they can count on the solidarity of the nation now and in the future," he said, adding that almost 10,000 rescue workers had been mobilised to help those affected.

Mr Chirac flew straight on to Tunisia after a whistlestop visit of just under an hour. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy and Environment Minister Roselyne Bachelot, who accompanied him, continued on to inspect other flood-hit areas.

Officials told the president the death toll had risen from three to four after the body of a missing 53-year-old woman was found.

Firemen later said they had also found the body of a man aged around 60 trapped in tree branches in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, taking the death toll to five.

Television pictures showed overturned cars swept up by the deluge and the tops of streetsigns poking through the surface. Rescue workers in boats paddled between houses and rescued drivers from submerged vehicles.

Weather services said winds of up to 140 kph battered the Mediterranean coast as rain clouds moving west sparked flood alerts as far as the Pyrenees mountains. France Telecom said about 25,000 telephone connections were down because of the flooding, 8,000 of them in Marseille.

Montpellier, west of Marseille, was practically cut off from the rest of France after roads out were flooded, rail services stopped and air traffic at the international airport suspended.