<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Powerful storms have battered areas of central and southern Europe, killing at least 12 people including three children.</span><br></div><div><br></div><div>The deaths, most from falling trees, were reported in Italy and Austria, and on the French island of Corsica.</div><div><br></div><div>Heavy rain and winds wrecked campsites on the island, while in Venice, Italy, masonry was blown off the belltower of St Mark's Basilica.</div><div><br></div><div>The storms follow weeks of heatwave and drought across much of the continent.</div><div><br></div><div>In Corsica, winds gusting up to 224 km/h (140mph) uprooted trees and damaged mobile homes.</div><div><br></div><div>Authorities there said a 13-year-old girl was killed by a falling tree on a campsite.</div><div><br></div><div>A 46-year-old man died in a similar incident and a woman in her 70s was killed when her car was hit by the detached roof of a beach hut.</div><div><br></div><div>Two other people, a fisherman, 62, and a female kayaker, 60, died out at sea.</div><div>Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who arrived in Corsica on Thursday, said 20 people had been injured - four of them seriously.</div><div><br></div><div>Almost 13,000 people were evacuated from several campsites on Thursday evening and sheltered in public buildings, ahead of more expected damage.</div><div><br></div><div>Extreme storms have become more frequent recently because of climate change.</div><div><br></div><div>Witnesses to the storms said they had been completely unexpected and no warning was given.</div><div><br></div><div>In Austria two girls aged four and eight were killed by a falling tree near a lake in Carinthia. - BBC</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>