Image copyright AFP Image caption A sea rescue boat moments before it capsized, killing three crew

A rescue boat has overturned in the Atlantic off the west coast of France leaving three crew dead, amid winds of up to 129 km/h (80 mph).

They were part of a crew of seven who had gone to the aid of another boat which had got into difficulty as Storm Miguel struck the area.

Winds of up to 147km/h hit northern Spain earlier, swirling around the Bay of Biscay and moving on to France.

The storm is unusual, coming at the start of the summer tourist season.

Photographs of the National Society of Sea Rescue rescue boat captured it rolling in large swells in the moments before it capsized, after which the vessel ran ashore upside down.

Four of the seven crew aboard the rescue boat managed to swim to shore. Three helicopters and around 60 firefighters were attempting to find the bodies of the three dead.

Image copyright AFP Image caption The National Society of Sea Rescue boat after it capsized

The strongest winds were recorded in the north-western Spanish region of Asturias late on Thursday while earlier there was damage to some buildings in Galicia.

As the storm hit land on the Ile d'Yeu in western France on Friday, forecasters recorded wind speeds of 129km/h.

Down the coast of the Vendée area, off the beach resort of Les Sables-d'Olonne, a crew from the SNSM sea rescue service went to the aid of a fishing boat in trouble and capsized some 800m off shore.

"The sea was quite atrocious," mayor Yannick Moreau told news channel BFMTV. "The boat had a crew of seven and three rescuers have died. It's a big shock for us and a big shock for the whole town."

Ten French departments were placed on orange alert and warned of potential damage, particularly to trees. Rail travel in the west was disrupted by the storm and forecasters said such images were rare in June.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Ten French departments were on alert for the storm

Alerts were also in place further north, with warnings of heavy rain and wind speeds of up to 100 km/h in the western half of the Netherlands.

High winds had already ravaged the Dutch coast in the early hours of Thursday, leading police in the coastal province of Zeeland to stumble on a cocaine laboratory.

When they were alerted to a tree that had fallen during the night, they saw some suspicious men loitering around a barn and noticed a strange smell.

Police said the cocaine lab was one of the biggest ever discovered in the Netherlands. </s> June 7 (UPI) -- Three members of a rescue lifeboat crew died and one remained missing off a French beach as Storm Miguel slammed France overnight with 62-mph winds.

The boat, from the French rescue group Sociéténationale de sauvetage en mer, ventured out into the rough seas off Tachetaux Sables-d'Olonne in southern France to assist a fishing boat caught in the storm. The rescue boat capsized in rough waters.

Authorities warned people to stay away from the western coast and beaches while dangerous conditions remained Friday.

The storm hit northwest Spain on Thursday before moving on to France and then Britain on Friday.

Britain's national weather service, the Met Office, warned of thunderstorms, some producing as much as an inch of rain in an hour, hitting some portions of the country as Miguel starts to track northwardly. Some areas could receive more than 1.5 inches in a few hours, disrupting travel.

A swath from Plymouth to London and Nottingham could be affected by the storm, including Bath, Portsmouth, Brighton, Birmingham and Peterborough. </s> Storm Miguel hit the western part of France on Friday, bringing winds of up to 100 km/h and heavy rain.As the waves battered the seas, three members of a French lifeboat crew died after their vessel capsized off Tanchet aux Sables-d'Olonne in the Vendée.The crew had been going to the rescue of a fishing boat which got into difficulties in the treacherous seas.People in the western part of France were ordered to stay away from the coast as the storm continued to move north throughout the day.A total of eight départements are on an orange alert for storms, and the warning lasts until 6am on Saturday.The areas affected are Charente-Maritime, Indre, Indre-et-Loire, Loire-Atlantique, Maine-et-Loire, Deux-Sèvres, Vendée and Vienne. </s> France was clearing up Saturday after a massive storm ripped across the country, leaving three dead and thousands of homes without electricity.

Three rescuers from the French ocean rescue service died Friday when their vessel capsized in rough seas as Storm Miguel pummelled the Atlantic coast.

"In late morning, a boat from the SNSM capsized 800 metres from the coast around Les Sables d'Olonne with seven people on board," the local prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Three of them died while four managed to swim to shore, the statement added.

"These tragic deaths have sparked deep emotions within the ocean rescue services," said SNSM chief, Xavier de la Gorce.

The team from the National Society of Sea Rescue (SNSM) had been attempting to help a fishing boat which was struggling in the giant swell caused by storm Miguel, which packed winds of up to 120 kilometres an hour (75 mph).

Maritime officials said the crew was using one of the SNSM's "all weather" vessels, specially designed to be unsinkable and to automatically right itself if capsized.

National electricity company Enedis said meanwhile that 28,000 homes were without power Saturday, with Normandy and northern parts of Acquitaine the worst affected.

"More than 1,000 personnel have been mobilised in the affected regions," it said in a statement.

In Paris meanwhile, a man was seriously injured after a falling tree knocked down a street light which hit him.

Rescue officials said the manwas fighting for his life after the incident in the 19th district in the northeastern part of the city that was hit by high winds. </s> Storms have battered the Atlantic coasts of northern Spain and western France, with winds of up to 147km/h (91mph).

Trees were uprooted as Storm Miguel first hit the Spanish region of Asturias, swirled around the Bay of Biscay and then hit the French coast.

The storm is unusual for the time of year, coming at the start of the summer tourist season.

Late on Thursday, wind speeds of 147 km/h were recorded in the north-western Spanish region of Asturias while earlier there was damage to some buildings in Galicia.

As the storm hit land on the Ile d'Yeu in western France on Friday, forecasters recorded wind speeds of 129km/h. Fallen trees were reported in the Vendée area.

Ten French departments were placed on orange alert and warned of potential damage, particularly to trees. Rail travel in the west was disrupted by the storm.

High waves lashed the coast near the port of Royan, and forecasters said such images were rare in June.

Alerts were also in place further north, with warnings of heavy rain and wind speeds of up to 100 km/h in the western half of the Netherlands.

High winds had already ravaged the Dutch coast in the early hours of Thursday, leading police in the coastal province of Zeeland to stumble on a cocaine laboratory.

When they were alerted to a tree that had fallen during the night, they saw some suspicious men loitering around a barn and noticed a strange smell.

Police said the cocaine lab was one of the biggest ever discovered in the Netherlands. </s> Winds of up to 129 km/h (80 mph) were recorded as Storm Miguel hit the coast of western France.

The storm had already hit northwestern Spain and had come in off the Bay of Biscay. </s> Three people have died after a rescue boat capsized as it searched for a fishing boat off the western coast of France.

Four others on the rescue boat are safe but the trawler has not been found, the prefect of the Vendee region said.

Gusts of wind have been measured at up to 120 kilometres per hour (75 mph).

Three helicopters are scouring the area off Les Sables d’Olonne.

The National Society of Sea Rescue, which sent the rescue boat out, has tweeted a warning to avoid coastal regions nearby. </s> On France’s Riviera coast, the rise of the River Garonnette in the Var region swept five cars towards the nearby sea, as torrential rain wrought havoc on the night of Wednesday to Thursday.

Two people were found dead in one of the cars, which was tossed upside down in the water and left rocking on its roof in shallow-water waves on a beach. The bodies of a man and a woman were discovered by scuba divers at Saint-Maxime, near the famed film-festival city of Cannes.

In Italy, the island of Sardinia was also hit by bad weather. Hours of heavy rain pushed river levels dangerously high. A woman died after her car was trapped by the flooding, while a shepherd was reported missing.

The woman had been with her husband and three children who fled from their home, fearing that a nearby river at Assemini was set to burst its banks, ANSA reported.

Dozens of people in the Cagliari region were evacuated, and several roads were closed due to collapse or high water levels.

Clean-up operations are continuing in the Spanish island of Mallorca after deadly flash flooding killed at least 12 people, including three Germans, two Britons and a Dutch woman.

The British couple killed have been named by the UK Foreign Office as Antony and Delia Green, who lived at Moffat in southern Scotland. They were in their seventies and had been in a taxi which became submerged by flood water in the resort of S’illot. The taxi driver, Juan Sillero, was also killed.

The search has been ongoing for a five-year-old boy reported missing following the storm on Tuesday. His mother is thought to have died while trying to save him and his sister from flood waters. She reportedly managed to pull her seven-year-old daughter from their car but was dragged away with her son.

Residents are clearing mud and removing debris from the streets in San Llorenc des Cardassar, one of the towns most devastated by the sudden floods. Mallorcan-born tennis champion Rafael Nadal, who lives in the area, helped in the clean-up effort – while his tennis academy at nearby Manacor opened up as an emergency shelter.

The regional government has declared three days of mourning. Spain’s central government says it has taken the first steps to ensure that those affected receive the necessary help as soon as possible. </s> Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Winter storm Eleanor wrecked havoc on Europe on Wednesday, bringing heavy winds and flooding and killing three people.

Two people drowned on Spain's northern Basque coast after being hit by a huge wave and a skier was killed in the French Alps by a falling tree.

The storm rocked France, Germany, Switzerland and Netherlands on Wednesday, where thousands of homes are without power after winds reached 100 mph.

In France, 200,000 households lost power and 15 people were injured. In Paris, the Eiffel Tower was closed due to strong winds and parks were closed over worries over falling tree branches.

Eight people were injured in Switzerland after strong winds blew a train carriage off its tracks. Some 14,000 homes were left without power.

The storm also rocked parts of Germany and Austria, where 20 skiers had to be rescued from a cable car in Kitzbühel after winds dislodged an empty car.

High winds are set to batter Britain once again, with the Met Office saying winds of up to 75 mph are likely to move in from the south west of England.

"The strongest winds will affect southwest England and Wales during the morning, moving east to reach eastern parts of England later in the afternoon," the Met Office said.

"Gusts of 50-60 mph are likely fairly widely with some gusts reaching 65-75 mph along exposed coasts and over high ground in the west."

In Ireland, coastal towns are still at risk of heavy flooding.

"Towns along the south and west coast remain at risk because of the arrival of strong winds allied with the high tides," Seán Hogan, the chair of the Government's National Emergency Coordination Group, said.

"That, allied with a particular wind direction and wave conditions like what happened in Galway Bay yesterday, poses a real threat of further flooding along the south and west coast."
Three people on a rescue mission are killed when Storm Miguel, with max winds of 129 km/h (80 mph), overturned their National Society of Sea Rescue boat off the west coast of France in the Atlantic Ocean. The storm, unusual at the start of the summer tourist season, hit Spain, the Netherlands and southern England and Wales yesterday and is heading north toward England, Wales and Scotland.