A violent but brief weather phenomenon hit the Saint-Priest-en-Jarez municipality, near Lyon, on Thursday evening, causing considerable destruction.
Eyewitness Eloïse, who was at a retail park at the time, described being literally lifted off the ground by the force of the wind. She recounted the surreal scene to RTL France, saying she saw a tornado forming and could hardly believe it was happening in her area.
"Then suddenly, the wind arrived." Initially thinking it was only a heavy rain shower, she began to run, but was quickly swept up. "The wind carried me away. I was literally flying", she said.
Eloïse only has fragmented memories of the ordeal: cars moving slowly, several violent falls, and a complete loss of control. "I had no control at all. I was dragged by the wind", she recalled.
Despite suffering scratches and bruises, she escaped serious injury – a stroke of luck given the flying metal debris around her. "I saw a piece of steel narrowly miss my head", she added.
The tornado caused widespread damage in the area. Firefighters from the Loire department responded to 150 incidents within a few hours. According to the prefecture, two lorries were overturned on the A72 motorway, severely disrupting traffic.
Météo-France lifted all orange weather warnings for severe storms in the south-east quarter of France early on Friday. The agency had previously warned of large hail and damaging winds, following several days of severe weather across the region.
"The violent storm episode is now over", meteorologists confirmed in their latest bulletin at 4am. Overnight, around 8,000 households in the Loire department lost electricity due to the storms, according to a statement from the prefect on X (formerly Twitter).
Across the department, emergency services responded to more than 600 incidents. Meanwhile, Météo-France reported that the heatwave affecting France in recent days is now receding.
