One dead, one missing as cliff collapses near Biarritz beach during French heatwave
A large section of cliff collapsed into the sea at the Miramar beach in Biarritz, France, on Wednesday evening, killing one female diver and leaving another missing as crowds swam nearby during a heatwave.
What happened
Around 20:20 on Wednesday 24 June, a roughly 2,000-square-metre section of cliff face broke away and plunged into the water beside the Miramar beach and the lighthouse in Biarritz, a popular seaside resort in southwestern France. The collapse occurred in an area busy with swimmers, paddleboarders and snorkellers, drawn by a heatwave and low tide. The prefecture of Pyrénées-Atlantiques said the cause of the collapse was not yet known.
According to initial reports, three local divers were in an area at the foot of the cliff when the collapse happened. Two of the divers are currently buried.
- A 2,000 m² section of cliff collapses into the sea near the Miramar beach and the lighthouse in Biarritz.
- Emergency services are alerted; firefighters, specialist divers and a gendarmerie helicopter are dispatched to the scene.
- The body of a female diver is recovered; the search for the second missing diver is still ongoing.
Victims and rescue effort
Emergency services recovered the body of a woman from the water on Wednesday evening. One other diver remains unaccounted for and is presumed still trapped under rubble. The third diver was pulled from the water physically unharmed but severely shaken and taken into care. Rescue teams, including firefighters, hazardous-environment specialists, police divers and a gendarmerie helicopter, searched into the night. The mayor of Biarritz, Serge Blanco (the former France rugby star elected in March), visited the scene, and the prefecture announced the area would be closed until further notice.
Eyewitness accounts
Several beachgoers witnessed the collapse. One, identified only as Paul, 30, described the sequence to Sud Ouest:
We were swimming, there were people paddleboarding and snorkeling near the cliff. And then we heard a loud boom and saw the whole cliff face slide and collapse into the water. A guy with a buoy got out and said there were two people around him and he didn’t see them anymore. A lot of people were swimming along because it was low tide.
Two teenage girls told the same newspaper the noise was “really impressive, like a thunderclap”, and was followed by a large wave.
Heatwave backdrop
Wednesday was the peak of a heatwave across southwestern France, with temperatures well above seasonal norms. Thousands of residents and holidaymakers flocked to the coast to cool off, leaving the waters below the Miramar cliffs unusually crowded. The combination of low tide, which exposed more of the cliff base, and the intense heat was cited by authorities and witnesses as a factor in the number of people in the water when the rockfall happened.
