Moment tornado tears through villages in Southern France leaving dozens injured and 300 homes damaged
Videos posted to social media show a powerful tornado touching down in the French village of Verzeille, with a pregnant woman among the injured after their house collapsed on her.
An enormous tornado tore through a town in Southern France, injuring over 40 people, ripping roofs off of houses and leaving thousands without electricity.
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The sudden weather event materialised in Verzeille on Monday evening, with footage posted to social media showing an immense wind tunnel ripping through the town, leaving rubble in its wake.
"Half the village has been destroyed," one resident, Pierre, told local media in the aftermath of the weather phenomenon.
Gusts of up to 117 km/h were recorded in the area, according to the local Audas regional government, and were particularly high in the village of Pomas, where 300 homes were left damaged.
Approximately 2,800 households were left without electricity following the event. Nobody is believed to be missing at this time, though 15 of the 41 injured were taken to hospital for their injuries.
Read more: Macron mocked for jet ski photos taken while wildfires rage across France
One of the 15 people hospitalised for their injuries was a pregnant woman, whose husband explained that her injuries were caused when her house collapsed on top of her.
Recalling the event, Pierre said the tornado looked like a "huge red and yellow chimney.”
He also told local reporters that a third of a castle located in the tornado's path, comprised of century-old stones, had now collapsed.
Videos across social media show scraps of wood, brick, and glass strewn across the ground. Car windows have been smashed in, and other cars can be seen tipped over in the middle of the road.
Tornados are formed typically during a ‘super-cell’ thunderstorm when the hot air and humidity from a thunderstorm rises and forces colder air down, which builds to create the classic conical shape of a spinning tornado.
Not all ‘super-cell’ storms form tornadoes, as the ground air has to be warm enough, and fast moving enough, to rise into a cone.
The conditions in the south of France on Monday were ripe for a large spinning and travelling tornado to form.
The larger storms in the region resulted in a cancellation of the third stage of the Vuelta a España cycling race which was due to take place but resulted in competitors sheltering in the area from a hailstorm instead.
The storm hit after large parts of the nation’s southwest were given severe weather warnings.
The larger thunderstorms in the south of France resulted in flight delays and cancellations across several airports on Monday evening. Roads in the area were closed and trains were suspended until the evening
The south of France has seen a number of extreme weather events over the summer, including France’s biggest wildfire in 80 years.
This wildfire resulted in the evacuation of 220,000 people and released more toxic smog than Delhi on its worst record day of smog in 2025. Four firefighters died fighting separate blazes in the country over the summer.