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Dead bodies from cemeteries have been washing up on the shores of the Mediterranean in France and Italy after the weekend floods.
The bodies were apparently washed down the mountain by violent rains.
A total of 12 deaths have been reported since Storm Alex began to hit the Alpes-Maritimes region of France and Italy’s northwestern regions of Liguria and Piedmont on Friday.
A helicopter lands in a collapsed car park in Saint-Martin-de-Vesubie
Authorities say more than 600 rescuers and others were searching for at least 20 people who were still missing.
On Monday three more bodies were discovered on the French side of the border with Italy after severe mountain floods devastated parts of both countries, and nine have already been found.
The prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes told Nice Matin newspaper that some bodies found in Italy were apparently corpses from coffins that had been washed across the border by raging floods.
Bernard González said that two more bodies had been found in the region as of Monday afternoon after another was found Sunday in the badly affected city of Saint-Martin-Vesubie.
Another body was later found in the same city, he later said, bringing the total on the French side to four.
In Italy, the body of a woman was discovered Monday in the Mediterranean Sea by the Ligurian province of Imperia.
A house and a destroyed road in Saint-Martin-de-Vesubie
Five other bodies, all men, were found Sunday at sea near San Remo, on the beach in the Italian border town of Ventimiglia and along the coast of Imperia.
González said he had contacted Italian colleagues about the bodies found on the beaches of Liguria.
“The bodies found correspond to decomposing corpses on our side, but most likely the bodies come from cemeteries washed away by water,” the newspaper said, citing him.
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Procedures were being carried out to identify the bodies, but he did not say exactly how many bodies he was talking about.
The floods have put additional pressure on regions facing the coronavirus pandemic. The governors of Liguria and Piedmont have asked the Italian government for emergency help.
