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SWITZERLAND-WEATHER-ACCIDENT
Tourist drowns in Lake Geneva during storm: police
GENEVA, June 16, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A woman has drowned in Lake Geneva when
her sightseeing boat sank as a violent storm battered parts of Switzerland on
Saturday, police said.
A man who was in the same boat was able to swim to another vessel from
where he fired “two flares”, Joanna Matta, police spokeswoman for the canton
(region) of Geneva, told AFP.
The man told officers that the woman had been “passing through Geneva” and
that the storm had taken them “by surprise”, Matta said.
Three police boats and emergency services rushed to the scene. Police
divers later retrieved the woman’s body from the lake. The victim, whose
nationality remains unknown, was then taken to a hospital in Geneva where she
was declared dead.
In a separate incident, the storm also damaged some of the 465 boats
taking part in the 81st edition of the Bol d’Or, an annual regatta on Lake
Geneva, the event’s press service said.
Heavy rain and strong winds lashed the participants on Saturday afternoon,
causing boats to capsize although nobody was injured.
However, the storm broke the mast of the ultra-fast “Real Team” catamaran,
which had been in the lead and was forced to pull out of the race.
The bad weather struck western Switzerland on Saturday afternoon, bringing
hail and winds reaching up to 110 kilometres (70 miles) per hour, according
to the national forecaster MeteoSwiss.
In the neighbouring French region of Haute-Savoie the storm also caused
damage and left a 51-year-old German tourist dead after a tree came down at a
campsite.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1010 hrs