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| North France tornado kills three | |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| A tornado has wreaked havoc in a small town in northern France, killing three people and injuring nine. | |
| A woman in her 70s died when her house collapsed late on Sunday in Hautmont. A deputy mayor and his wife were also crushed in their own home. | A woman in her 70s died when her house collapsed late on Sunday in Hautmont. A deputy mayor and his wife were also crushed in their own home. |
| The storm devastated two streets in Hautmont, which has 16,000 residents. | |
| Roofs were ripped off, trees uprooted and cars overturned. Rescuers are still picking through the rubble in case any more residents were buried alive. | Roofs were ripped off, trees uprooted and cars overturned. Rescuers are still picking through the rubble in case any more residents were buried alive. |
| The tornado also swept through three other small towns nearby, where the damage was not so severe: Maubeuge, Neuf-Mesnil and Boussieres-sur-Sambre. | |
| A 76-year-old man is reported to have committed suicide after his house was demolished by the storm. | |
| Deep roaring sound | |
| The tornado tore through 10km (six miles) of the Nord region of France on Sunday at around 2300 local time (2100 GMT). | |
| It cut a swathe through Hautmont, where about 40 homes were damaged within minutes. | |
| "My roof blew off, all the windows are broken," 75-year-old Leon Denoyelle told the French news agency AFP in Hautmont. | |
| "There was a deep roaring sound, like a bombing raid," local resident Erick Filleur was quoted as saying. | "There was a deep roaring sound, like a bombing raid," local resident Erick Filleur was quoted as saying. |
| Red Cross volunteers handed out blankets and food to shocked residents, as 200 rescue workers used sniffer dogs to scour the affected area for survivors. | |
| France's Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie was heading to the area to survey the damage, ministry officials said. | |
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| Collapsed buildings in Hautmont |