Two people were missing and hundreds of homes flooded Saturday as heavy rains hit the Cote d’Azur in southern France, disrupting air and rail transport and leading to hundreds of evacuations. One of the missing was a 77-year-old man. Near Muy, in the Car area, a woman was also missing after a lifeboat capsized with three crew members and three other people aboard. While five of them reached safety she could not be found. Two other people were rushed to hospital as storms hit the area overnight. The two districts affected, Alpes-Maritimes and Var, were placed on “red alert” warnings by the meteorological office and official warnings were also issued about high waves off the coast. A total of 1,600 members of the emergency services were mobilised to deal with the emergency. Numerous roads were cut off and rail traffic was halted from the Cote d’Azur to the Italian border until at least Sunday. Flights from Nice international airport were suspended during the day and due to resume late Saturday. In Nice itself, alert sirens sounded to urge people to stay indoors. Most residents complied and the streets were almost deserted by late afternoon on Saturday.