22 Die as Swollen River Floods French Campsite

A rain-swollen river that overflowed its banks in eastern France sent a wall of water and mud cascading through a campsite, leaving 22 people dead and 28 missing.

A violent two-hour thunderstorm dumped the huge volume of water into the shallow Borne River, which overflowed its banks Tuesday night at the Grand Bornand Alpine mountain and ski resort, about 20 miles south of Geneva, Switzerland.

Authorities and witnesses said that the campers were taken by surprise.

“I saw my motor home carried away, with my wife and our little girl inside,” one camper said, crying. “I could not do anything to save them.”

Police in the Upper Savoy region said that in addition to dead and missing, 10 people suffered serious injuries. Of the 22 who died, 17 bodies were found in the mud at the campsite and five turned up in rivers in France and miles away in Switzerland.

“We have never seen such a disaster in our community,” said Pierre Pochat, mayor of the town of Grand Bornand. “. . . They did not have enough time to see the volume of the water or the strength of the storm.”

A team of more than 500 rescuers from the army, police and other services were sent to the area.

A government spokesman, Alain Juppe, said authorities fear that the death toll will rise, and Swiss officials said they are searching for additional bodies that may have swept across the border.

A Swiss police spokesman said trailer roofs, tires and tents from the flood site were seen rushing by in Swiss waterways.

After the disaster, survivors and residents huddled in grief and surveyed the mud-covered damage.

An unidentified local resident said: “It was all over in about 15 minutes. Within minutes the holiday-camp football field was flooded, with the water rising to the crossbars of the goal posts.”