Flood strands 600 in French holiday village

MARSEILLE: Almost 600 people were trapped in southern France on Monday after flooding damaged the bridge on the only road to a holiday village, with a local mayor saying authorities were working to evacuate them.

“The sun is shining today and there´s water, electricity, nobody´s panicking,” said Liliane Boyer, mayor of Le Muy -- around halfway between Marseille and Nice in southeast France. “All the authorities are working to allow the holidaymakers who were supposed to depart today or this week to leave,” she added. France is in the middle of a two-week autumn school holiday when many families vacation elsewhere in the country.

The Canebieres holiday village of houses and trailers was hosting 584 people when intense rain and flooding hit France´s southeast over the weekend. Three people were evacuated by helicopter for health reasons late Sunday and taken to hospitals in the region, the Var department prefecture said.