{"id":111924,"date":"2026-08-05T11:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T11:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/111924\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T11:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T11:07:11","slug":"woman-missing-after-flash-floods-sweep-her-away-in-alps-village-near-sixt-fer-a-cheval","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/111924\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman missing after flash floods sweep her away in Alps village near Sixt-Fer-\u00e0-Cheval"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"subtitle \" style=\"\">Victim hit by debris when crossing bridge to find safe campsite<\/p>\n<p>\n        The woman has been missing since yesterday evening. Archive photo shows the Giffre river<br \/>\n        Nigel Beasley \/ Alamy Stock Photo\n    <\/p>\n<p>A 57-year-old woman is missing in eastern France after being swept away by powerful floodwaters and debris while trying to reach a campsite.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The woman was carried away early in the evening on Tuesday, August 4, when attempting to cross a bridge over the Giffre river to reach a safe campsite near Sixt-Fer-\u00e0-Cheval (Haute-Savoie).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>She was visiting from the northern Oise department with her husband and dog, and it was her first time in the area.<\/p>\n<p>Firefighters were unable to find her during an initial search and passed the investigation on to the national Gendarmerie just before midnight.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Authorities continue to look for her today and are set to deploy drones to assist in the search.<\/p>\n<p>The commune is a popular hiking spot, particularly in the summer, and in a separate incident 15 people, including two babies, had to be rescued from nearby Cirque du Fer \u00e0 Cheval following a landslide.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The rescue required several firefighters as the commune is only accessible via one road, which was cut off during the incident.<\/p>\n<p>A total of 170 people took shelter at a restaurant in the commune before being authorised to return this morning.<\/p>\n<p>The video below shows the landslide.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"fr\" dir=\"ltr\">INTEMP\u00c9RIES : Une personne est recherch\u00e9e apr\u00e8s qu\u2019une coul\u00e9e de boue dans le cours du Giffre a d\u00e9bord\u00e9 sur un parking, lors de fortes pluies orageuses \u00e0 Sixt-Fer-\u00e0-Cheval, en Haute-Savoie. Plusieurs h\u00e9licopt\u00e8res et sauveteurs aquatiques ont \u00e9t\u00e9 mobilis\u00e9s pour sauver des\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DYLovsaANT\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/DYLovsaANT<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Infos Fran\u00e7aises (@InfosFrancaises) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/InfosFrancaises\/status\/2084901814332215569?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">August 5, 2026<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Hit by debris while crossing bridge<\/p>\n<p>Powerful storms battered several areas of France yesterday, including the east.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A &#8220;highly localised storm [causing] a torrential debris flow,\u201d hit the area in the evening, said mayor of Sixt-Fer-\u00e0-Cheval C\u00e9dric Mionnet-Perdu to BFMTV.<\/p>\n<p>This included &#8220;50,000 cubic metres of material,\u201d flowing along the Giffre, the mayor said, including water and debris such as rocks, concrete, and organic material.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The woman and her partner \u201cwere heading to a campsite to take shelter, and unfortunately, they passed over just as the debris flow submerged the bridge,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>It is believed that a riverbank along the Giffre river burst, collecting debris alongside the excess water from heavy rainfall.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I am under no illusions\u2026 I want to grieve\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Her husband spoke to BFMTV following the incident.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt all happened in a split second. I barely had time to turn my head, take a step back, and tell her to move back before she was knocked over by a wall of rubble and concrete [flowing with the floodwater],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat was the last time I saw my wife&#8230; once things calmed down, I was in shock; I tried searching through the rubble. But without success. We had no mobile signal there, so a passerby had to call emergency services from further down,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m under no illusions. Between the concrete wall that swept her away, the mud, and the cold [I think she is dead].\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll I want is to find the body of my wife, the mother of my children, so I can grieve.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victim hit by debris when crossing bridge to find safe campsite The woman has been missing since yesterday&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[16],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-111924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alps","tag-alps"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/117042587113447729","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}