Floods as Riviera hit by tornado; HUNDREDS OF CAMPERS FLEE SAVAGE STORMS.

STORMS flooded roads and forced rescue workers to evacuate hundreds of holidaymakers from campsites in parts of southern France yesterday as the region was pummelled by heavy rains.

Rescue workers responded to 300 calls for help in the area around Nice on the French Riviera, where there were numerous power cuts and a main road was temporarily closed due to flooding.

A mini-tornado felled trees and caused other structural damage in the village of Villeneuve-Loubet of the southeastern Alpes-Maritime district, which includes Nice. No injuries were reported.

More than 800 tourists were evacuated from campsites in southwestern France near the border with Spain yesterday. The holidaymakers were given temporary shelter in municipal buildings.

Meanwhile rescue workers converged on a chemical plant in the Czech Republic as officials prepared to remove chlorine gas from a tank submerged by recent floods.

Police and firefighters travelled to the town of Neratovice, 15 miles north of Prague where the Spolana plant is situated. Authorities also sent buses there in case residents needed to be evacuated.

The precautions come only days after up to 1,100lb of chlorine was released from a damaged pipeline when employees attempted to pump the gas from the flooded tank.

A separate leak occurred on August 15 when the site was submerged by the country's worst flooding in 175 years.

Tomas Zikmund, spokesman for Spolana's owner, Unipetrol, said the tank still contained 12 tons of chlorine gas, which workers would pump out today.

Parent company Unipetrol fired Spolana's general director, Radomir Vek, for his handling of the recent crisis.

The government launched an investigation into Spolana's handling of the leaks on Saturday. The plant, located less than 100 yards away from the Elbe River, estimated that it suffered more than pounds 20m in damage due to the floods.

Authorities have found two more victims of the floods that hit the Czech Republic earlier this month, raising the death toll from the disaster to 16.

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SURVIVOR: A man guides a raft down the street at Yueyang in China's central Hunan province. The Dongting Lake is close to bursting its banks and swamping six cities and dozens of villages