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Damaged houses in Pomas after the tornado of 24 August 2026.
Damaged houses in Pomas after the tornado of 24 August 2026.

Idriss Bigou-Gilles / AFP via Getty Images

Composite story

Tornado ravages French village of Pomas, injuring dozens and wrecking hundreds of homes

A rare-intensity tornado tore through Pomas in Aude on Monday afternoon. Early tallies put injuries at 39 with two critical; later the prefect said 48 people were taken to rescue centres and none was in a worrying condition.

A tornado struck the village of Pomas, south of Carcassonne in southern France, around 5:20 p.m. on Monday, 24 August. Early official figures put injuries at 39, including two people in critical condition, and about 300 damaged homes in a village of roughly 1,000 people. Tuesday afternoon the Aude prefect said 48 people had been transferred to rescue centres, 20 remained hospitalised, and none was in a worrying condition; 330 of 496 homes were listed as hit, with 102 of those assessed called totally destroyed. No deaths or missing people were reported. The mayor compared the scene to wartime. Hail forced cancellation of a Vuelta a España stage, and thousands of households lost power.

Shared facts

A tornado struck the village of Pomas in the Aude department of southern France on Monday afternoon.

The tornado hit Pomas around 5:20 p.m. local time on Monday, 24 August.

Tuesday morning authorities put the number of people injured at 39.

About 300 homes in Pomas were damaged, according to early estimates.

Pomas was the community hardest hit.

Two of the injured were reported in critical condition.

Fifteen of the injured were taken to hospital in the early tally.

The tornado brought down walls, uprooted trees and left debris in the streets.

Pomas has about 1,000 residents.

A pregnant woman was injured when her house collapsed on her.

Several south-west departments, including Aude, were on an orange thunderstorm alert.

More than 120 emergency workers, including firefighters, were deployed.

Cars in Pomas were destroyed, overturned or badly damaged.

Météo-France recorded gusts of 117 km/h (73 mph) at nearby Arquettes-en-Val.

The village school, including the nursery, was destroyed or largely gone.

The tornado tore roofs off houses.

Officials said no one was reported missing.

Tuesday morning the prefecture said 75 firefighters were still on search and inspection, with specialist reinforcements.

The third stage of the Vuelta a España cycling race was stopped and cancelled because of hail.

Officials said tarping of damaged homes was starting.

Emergency crews worked through the night.

A building audit continued to check structural weakness and collapse risk.

Enedis said 7,250 customers in Languedoc-Roussillon were without power at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday.

People left homeless spent the night in the Pomas community hall with help from the Red Cross.

Riders took shelter several kilometres from the Font-Romeu finish.

Enedis said 1,600 of those outages were in Aude.

Gendarmes continued to secure the village and its approaches.

Others were housed with relatives or in neighbouring communes.

About 1,400 households were still without electricity on Tuesday morning, the prefecture said.

Damaged roofs were covered with blue and green plastic tarpaulins.

Several roads remained closed because of debris and fallen trees.

Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said storms caused flight delays and cancellations at Bordeaux, Marseille, Nice, Toulouse and Paris.

Nearby fields were littered with broken furniture, insulation and torn fencing.

France records several dozen tornadoes a year, most of them of low intensity.

Scientists and Météo-France say the effect of climate change on tornado frequency and intensity is unclear.

Disputed facts

None yet.

Shared opinions

Deputy prefect Marie-Hélène Bouissac called it an exceptional and highly traumatic event.

Resident Pierre said half the village was destroyed.

Pierre described the tornado as a huge chimney with debris flying through the air.

Disputed opinions

None yet.

BBC News

Tornado tears through French village, leaving dozens hurt and homes ravaged

Yang Tian

25 Aug 2026

Facts

She lowered the victim count from 41 to 39.

Pierre told Ici Occitanie that a third of a huge castle had collapsed, stones that had stood for 1,000 years.

The village is south of Carcassonne.

Officials said about 2,800 homes across 10 villages were without electricity.

Resident Chantal said her roof collapsed over her head after a massive noise and debris flying.

Eyewitness footage captured the tornado's vortex above houses and trees.

BBC said south-west France was among the worst hit this summer, with 42,000 hectares burnt in a major forest fire.

Opinion

Chantal said she thought it was her final hour.

RFI

French village reels from tornado that damaged hundreds of homes

RFI

25 Aug 2026

Facts

Resident Fabien said there were no roof tiles left and no roofs at all.

Opinion

Fabien said the damage was hard to believe.

Pierre called it an incredible sight.

Associated Press

A tornado tears through a village in southern France, injuring 39 and wrecking 300 homes

Associated Press

25 Aug 2026

Facts

Rescue teams were still searching through ruins on Tuesday.

Authorities opened emergency accommodation centres for displaced residents.

Wind gusts exceeding 60 mph were recorded at a nearby station.

Opinion

No opinion marked.

Reuters

Rare tornado in southwestern France injures dozens, damages homes

Reuters

25 Aug 2026

Facts

Everyone in the village has been evacuated while homes are checked for safety.

Séverine's house was flattened by the tornado.

She said the car her family piled into was shaken before they sped away.

Reuters-verified footage showed the tornado over nearby Verzeille.

Many homes in its path had their windows smashed.

It struck as summer heat gave way to thunderstorms in southern France.

Météo-France says tornadoes in France are usually mild.

The United States records more than 1,000 tornadoes a year.

Opinion

Resident Séverine told BFM TV it felt as though death itself was falling upon them.

Séverine said they fled on survival instinct.

AFP

'Wartime situation': tornado ravages French village

AFP

25 Aug 2026

Facts

Seventeen people were hospitalised.

Giné said no one died.

He said they no longer have a town hall.

He said much of the village would have to be rebuilt.

The mayor said Pomas has 476 homes.

Firefighters with a canine search unit searched for possible victims.

Gomes said the friend had a head injury and three or four broken ribs and left hospital that morning.

José Gomes of Trèbes said a friend's house had collapsed.

Relatives waited at a police checkpoint for permission to enter, bringing supplies.

Abdallah Wakkas said his grandchildren's grandmother had her roof torn off.

AFP said France had three heatwaves this summer and a record 52 days of heat intensified by climate change.

It said the heat had sparked droughts, wildfires and a record number of Alpine rockfalls.

Opinion

The mayor described the aftermath as resembling wartime.

The mayor said they were bombed by nature.

He said people are in shock and some have lost everything.

He called it a miracle and estimated there could have been several dozen fatalities.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said on X the tornado was of rare intensity.

He said the teenagers were a bit traumatised.

Le Monde

Tornade dans l'Aude : le village de Pomas partiellement détruit, 39 personnes blessées

Le Monde avec AFP

25 Aug 2026

Facts

Gendarmes said she was buried by a falling wall but protected by her sofa.

The health of her fetus was not known.

An AFP journalist saw gendarmes blocking the village's three access roads.

5,250 of those were in Hérault.

300 were in the Gard.

100 were in the Pyrénées-Orientales.

Opinion

No opinion marked.

ICI Occitanie

Tornade dans l'Aude : pas de mort ou de blessé grave à Pomas, 330 maisons endommagées

Isabelle Lassalle

25 Aug 2026

Facts

Prefect Alain Bucquet said 48 people had been transferred to rescue centres.

Twenty people were still hospitalised with light injuries.

He said none was in a condition that caused concern.

330 homes were impacted, of 496 in the village.

Those still hospitalised had light injuries.

102 were totally destroyed.

The prefecture said 293 homes had been assessed so far.

191 of those were habitable.

The village has 496 homes.

The prefect said the new school year would start on time in neighbouring communes, not in Pomas.

Residents whose homes were hit cannot yet return.

The prefecture said the state and insurers would stand with residents.

56 gendarmes, backed by southern defence-zone reinforcements, were securing the area.

Météo-France said that 117 km/h reading is not representative of what Pomas experienced.

Météo-France said it was surveying damage to assess intensity and path.

The prefecture said that was in part to prevent opportunistic crime.

The nearest station, at Arquettes-en-Val, is 18 km from Pomas.

Météo-France said its forecasters had warned whirlwind phenomena were possible in Aude.

The Aude alert was lifted at 7 p.m.

More than 30 mm of rain fell in an hour at Castelnaudary.

The transport ministry said the storms heavily disrupted road, rail and air in the south.

106 km/h gusts were recorded at Lézignan-Corbières.

Trains were suspended between Narbonne and Sète.

Social-media images showed flooded streets in Narbonne.

Météo-France also reported hail-bearing storms in the Gers and Lot-et-Garonne.

Opinion

Bucquet said there is enormous solidarity in a department used to fires, floods and climate shocks.

He said the territory must adapt to climate change.