A supercell tornado has flipped two lorries in France while deadly storms are lashing Germany, causing several fatalities as freak wildfires rage across Europe.Strong winds and particularly violent hailstorms struck the Loire department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France, with a tornado causing havoc to the north.More than 200 firefighters and 147 vehicles were deployed for 322 interventions.Dramatic footage from Saint-Étienne shows leaves and debris flying manically in the air, lampposts shaking and drivers struggling to maintain visibility in the raging thunderstorm.The extreme weather caused two trucks to overturn on the A72 in the direction of Saint-Étienne to Clermont-Ferrand, the Loire prefecture announced on its X account.In Saint-Just-Saint-Rambert, a nursing home sustained damage as well as several power poles amid a tornado, leaving 53,000 households without power, with cuts also impacting Nouvelle Aquitaine in the southwest.In Saint-Victurnien, in the central Haute-Vienne department, a woman died after a tree fell on her on Thursday evening, and in Dolomieu to the east a man was found burned to death late on Thursday in a workshop that caught fire after being struck by lightning.It's the latest episode of extreme weather to hit the continent, with wildfires killing at least seven Brits in Spain earlier this month, and 40C+ temperatures blamed for thousands of excess deaths. Dramatic footage from Saint-Étienne shows leaves and debris flying manically in the air, lampposts shaking and drivers struggling to maintain visibility in the raging thunderstorm The extreme weather caused two trucks to overturn on the A72 in the direction of Saint-Étienne to Clermont-Ferrand, the Loire prefecture announced on its X account Flames blaze in the Fontainebleau forest during a wildfire, in Noisy-sur-Ecole, near Paris, during a heatwave affecting large parts of France, July 13Weather service Météo-France on Friday lifted the orange alert for thunderstorms in all the departments of southeastern France that were previously affected, having earlier warned of large hailstones and gusts of wind from the Massif Central to the Alps.Severe storms have taken their toll across southern Germany, where in the city of Karlsruhe a cyclist was killed and a child was injured after trees toppled over.Hundreds of firefighters and members of the Technical Relief Service were deployed in the city overnight, where the fire department reported more than 250 weather-related calls.Flooding occurred between 7.00pm and 11.00pm, damaging traffic lights and cars.Karlsruhe declared an 'extraordinary emergency response situation' in response to the extreme weather, in order to centrally coordinate the numerous operations. In the Rems-Murr district near Stuttgart, falling trees caused about 100,000 euros in damage to a building. According to the German Weather Service (DWD), more thunderstorms are expected today, featuring heavy rain, hail, and squalls in large parts of the country.French President Emmanuel Macron traveled to the historic forest of Fontainebleau yesterday, where 5,000 acres were destroyed by a raging wildfire.While the blaze has been contained, it is yet to be totally extinguished five days after it broke out. Around 950 firefighters supported by aerial teams were deployed to put out the flames, which have made the emblematic forest – the most-visited in France – almost unrecognisable.'We had never faced a fire like this in the region before,' the president said to several dozen firefighters, gendarmes, police officers, staff from France's National Forests Office, Red Cross and White Cross emergency workers at the operational command post set up in Noisy-sur-Ecole, southeast of Paris. French President Emmanuel Macron speaks as he meets with forest police and firefighters following the forest fires in Fontainebleau at the firefighter's central command site in Noisy-sur-Ecole, near Fontainebleau, France, Thursday, July 16, An exceptionally large wildfire is spreading across the Fontainebleau Forest, south of Paris, France, on July 15 Fueled by an intense heat wave, prolonged drought conditions and strong winds, the blaze is rapidly advancing through the woodland, destroying hundreds of hectares of vegetationIn Spain yesterday, hundreds of people were evacuated from five villages in the northern Aragon region as a wildfire near the municipality of Ores burned more than 18,700 acres.The Aragon regional government declared a level two emergency, indicating the fire is threatening populated areas and significant infrastructure. More than 400 firefighters backed by army reinforcements were battling the growing blaze in a sparsely populated part of the region.Roberto Bermudez de Castro, a senior member of the regional government, said it was 'one of the most serious and complex forest fires' Aragon had suffered in years due to high temperatures, low humidity and strong winds.The official had said the fire would 'take days to control' but added that the night would offer 'a window of opportunity' thanks to cooler, calmer winds.Footage shared by firefighters showed the blaze eating away at expanses of forests and parched fields, while a giant pyrocumulus billowed in the sky.Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expressed 'all my solidarity with the residents affected by the fire' on X, urging the population to exercise caution and obey the authorities.Scientists say human-driven climate change is increasing the length, intensity and frequency of extreme heat, which creates favourable conditions for the spread of wildfires and complicates firefighting efforts.Peak temperatures of up to 40C have hit Aragon in recent days. A firefighter works at a site, following a wildfire in the municipality of Ores, northern Aragon region, Spain, July 16 Firefighters work at a site, following a wildfire in the municipality of Ores, northern Aragon region, Spain July 16 Roberto Bermudez de Castro, a senior member of the regional government, said it was 'one of the most serious and complex forest fires' Aragon had suffered in years due to high temperatures, low humidity and strong winds Deadly wildfires devoured almost 400,000 hectares of land in Spain last year, the highest figure recorded for the country by the European Forest Fire Information System Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expressed 'all my solidarity with the residents affected by the fire' on X, urging the population to exercise caution and obey the authoritiesSpain is scarred by last week's ferocious wildfire in the southeastern province of Almeria that claimed 13 lives - including seven Britons and an American - and ravaged 7,000 hectares.Deadly wildfires devoured almost 400,000 hectares of land in Spain last year, the highest figure recorded for the country by the European Forest Fire Information System.At least 12,000 excess deaths were recorded across nine European countries during June's heatwave, national statistics indicated, a toll that could yet rise as more data is released.During this period, all-time temperature records were broken in several European countries, as well as for the month of June in the UK and in Switzerland.And while the mortality statistics remain provisional, they are an early indication of the human cost of these record-breaking heatwaves, which are becoming increasingly common.AFP analysed data on excess deaths between June 22 and 28 from Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland.During this period, the height of the heatwave in several countries, around 10,000 excess deaths were recorded in these countries.Another 2,200 deaths were linked to the heatwave in England and Wales between June 18 and 28, according to estimates released by Britain's Met Office.Provisional data from the European Mortality Monitoring (EuroMOMO) also recorded a significant rise in excess deaths in the final week of June: it put the figure at 14,260. Their figures for that week drew on official statistics from 24 countries, accounting for some 400 million residents.EuroMOMO's figures do not include parts of eastern Europe.'The summer is not yet over,' Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, warned in a statement.'This is not a natural disaster and it's repeating itself every year because too many governments are still treating heat as a weather event rather than a health emergency,' he added.'The tools to prevent most of these deaths exist. The guidance is published. The evidence is there,' he argued.'What governments do next is a choice, and this summer shows what's at stake.'These figures indicate that this week had the highest rate of excess deaths among all June weeks since EuroMOMO began pulling these European figures together in 2020.The only other summer week in which a higher rate of excess deaths has been recorded over that seven-year period was a week in July 2022 when Covid was still active in many European countries.'There's no other reasons for excess mortality that we know of than heat - and it's quite dramatic,' said Lasse Vestergaard, an epidemiologist at Denmark's Statens Serum Institut and coordinator of EuroMOMO.But he urged caution in interpreting the most recent figures - according to EuroMOMO, it takes four weeks for estimates to become sufficiently consolidated.The initial figures released by national bodies have often been revised upwards since the end of the June heatwave.Different countries have different ways of compiling the relevant figure.Spain's excess mortality monitor MoMo attributed 610 deaths to the heat between June 22 and 28 - nearly two thirds of whom were more than 85 years old.But over the same period, Germany recorded 5,780 excess deaths - compared to the average of the four previous years, said Germany's federal office of statistics, Destatis.Compared to the two previous weeks, Destatis had recorded 7,100 excess deaths.Germany's public health authority, the Robert Koch Institute, put it this way: more people had died from the heat so far this summer in Germany than over the previous six years.During the same week of June 22-28, France recorded 2,025 excess deaths compared to the previous week.Belgium's public health body Sciensano recorded 1,747 excess deaths between June 18 and July 1 - 750 of them over just two days, June 27-28.An AFP analysis of data from public health bodies in the relevant countries showed nearly 600 excess deaths between June 22 and 28 in the Netherlands; 220 during the same period in Switzerland; and 23 excess deaths in Luxembourg.Italy's health authorities recorded a slight rise in deaths among people over 85 between June 24 and 30 in northern Italy. But these figures only covered the 54 main cities there.Several countries in central and eastern Europe who were also hit by the heatwave in late June, such as Hungary and Slovakia, have not yet published provisional figures.The World Weather Attribution group of scientists has said that these temperatures would have been 'virtually impossible' in June without climate change.