A man has been spotted taking to a paddleboard to get around a city in France after the country has been struck by its worst flooding in 40 years.
Following hours of heavy rainfall on Thursday the country has been grappling with the extreme flooding which has seen animals swept away, roads submerged in muddy waters and villagers forced to travel by boat.
Shocking video footage shows a man paddling through Bayonne after the Nive River, which runs through the city, burst its banks.
The floodwaters remained throughout Friday and authorities advised residents to remain vigilant during the weekend ahead.
Elsewhere in central France, Grangent dam could be seen attempting to control a goliath flow of water – which at one point exceeded over 2 million litres of water, according to Météo Express.
The heavy flooding battered parts of France, leaving some in its mountainous southeast region with power outages and serious damage, the AFP reports.
There have been no reports of deaths or injuries and it is not yet clear what the level of damage is from the floodwaters.
France’s weather authority Météo France issued six red flood alerts south of Lyon on Thursday.
The alerts were later downgraded to ‘orange’ on Friday, indicating that water levels would come down again.
Agnes Pannier-Runacher, the environment minister, told BFM TV: ‘At certain places in the Ardèche region, up to 700 milimetres of water has fallen in 48 hours.
‘That’s more than a year’s rainfall in Paris, so it’s absolutely gigantic.’
French news stations showed cars, traffic signs and cattle being swept by the torrent floods.
The A47 highway close to Lyon was temporarily transformed into a giant stream of water, as the heavy downpour took over.
The French interior ministry said Paris had dispatched 1,500 additional firefighters to affected areas.
Harrowing footage also showed people struggling to cross the powerful currents with water coming up to their knees.
The flooding in southern France comes a week after remnants of Hurricane Kirk churned across western Europe and nearly a month after Cannes was hit by flash flooding.
Earlier in September, central Europe was battered by the worst floods in that area in at least two decades.
Over the last few days, French authorities have closed roads, evacuated neighbourhoods and asked residents to avoid placing themselves in danger by taking photos and videos.
It comes as French departments were placed on red alert for flooding amid ‘exceptional rain’ that the French weather agency said was as much as 24.8 inches in 48 hours in one area.
Departments in France are administrative regions similar to British or American counties.
The areas were covered by the red alert include Lyon, the third-largest city in the country, as well as Cannes, famed for its film festival.
Authorities said they had closed roads, evacuated neighbourhoods and asked residents to avoid placing themselves in danger by taking photos and videos.
There have been no reports of deaths or injuries and it is not yet clear what the level of damage is from the floodwaters.
It comes after episodes of wild weather gripped Europe over the summer, with parts of Spain, France and Switzerland lashed by freak summer storms and flash floods.
