Scientists say climate change driven by human activity is increasing the severity, frequency and length of extreme weather such as floods and storms.
Ferocious storms and torrential rains that lashed France, Switzerland and Italy this weekend have left at least seven people dead, local authorities said on Sunday.
Three people died after torrential rains triggered a landslide in southeastern Switzerland, police in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino said Sunday.
Elsewhere in Switzerland, a man was found dead in a hotel in Saas-Grund in the southwest canton of Valais, police said, adding that he was probably taken by surprise by a sudden rapid rise in floodwater.
Images published in the online publication 20minuten showed parts of the town covered in a thick layer of mud and rocks.
Another man is also missing in Valais, police said.
In France, three people in their 70s and 80s died in the northeastern Aube region on Saturday when a falling tree crushed the car they were travelling in, the local authority told Agence France-Presse.
A fourth passenger was in critical care, it added.
Switzerland’s civil security services said “several hundred” people were evacuated in the southern canton of Valais and roads closed after the Rhone and its tributaries overflowed in different locations.
