A TORNADO tore through a village in south-west France, injuring 41 people and damaging hundreds of homes.

Fifteen people were taken to hospital, including a pregnant woman who was injured when her house collapsed on her after winds reaching 73mph ripped through Pomas on Monday.

An orange alert was issued for thunderstorms across large sections of the country’s south-west, which have already been hit by power outages and transport disruptions.

Authorities in the Aude department in south-west France cancelled the third stage of the Vuelta a Espana cycling race in the area after a hailstorm in the French Pyrenees forced riders to seek shelter.

Eyewitnesses captured the swirling vortex of the tornado on their phones as it loomed on the horizon above the area.

Images from the small village of Pomas, which was the hardest hit, showed uprooted trees, damaged cars and rubble from destroyed homes.

On average, France experiences several dozen tornadoes per year, according to the country’s national weather service Meteo-France.

It comes after Europe’s summer of unprecedented heatwaves and wildfires, with the south-west of France among the worst affected with an area of 42,000 hectares burnt in one of the largest forest fires since the second world war.