A couple from Huddersfield have told of their terror at being caught up in devastating floods which left at least 19 people dead in the south of France.

Linda Coletta-Whiteley and her husband Andrew Whiteley spent seven hours trapped by the raging waters at a campsite in Antibes, where a British holidaymaker drowned after a river burst its banks in torrential rain.

After wading through water which was rising up to their necks the couple managed to reach an iron stairway leading up to a disused shower block where they took refuge as cars, caravans and boats were swept away in front of them.

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Aftermath of flooding in the south of France
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Helicopters helped rescue people from the site but it was seven hours before the stranded holidaymakers reached safety.

The couple, both 64, run the Castle View Guest House in Almondbury, and were staying at the Pylone campsite.

Linda said: “It was horrendous, the stuff of nightmares.

“The first we knew was when staff began knocking at all the caravans screaming at people to get out and move their cars.

“Andrew went to the car but within seconds the water was waist deep. He turned back and got to me just in time as I can’t swim.

“The water was coming along in torrents and pushing us everywhere. It was up to our necks. We managed to get onto this iron stairway where there were loads of people hanging on and a German man smashed his way into the shower room and 20 of us got in there.

A workers uses a bulldozer to clean the streets of Vallauris, southern France, Sunday Oct.4, 2015. lash flooding around the French Riviera has killed more than a dozen of people, including some trapped in cars, a campsite and a retirement home. Torrents of muddy water also inundated buildings, roads and railway tracks, disrupting car and train traffic along the Mediterranean coast. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau)

“We were lucky as other people were on the top of their caravans. There was one woman with a 10-month-old baby on the top of a caravan and a fireman managed to reach them and get the baby to safety.

“We couldn’t believe what we were seeing. There were boats and caravans going past us, seemingly up in the air and smashing into people. The firemen were amazing. They saved so many.”

When the waters had subsided the couple were taken to a nearby college. They lost everything except the clothes they were wearing, their passports and a mobile phone.

The Red Cross helped the stranded holidaymakers at the college with clothing and supplies, and the couple are now staying at a hotel. They plan to return to Huddersfield on Thursday.

A statue of the Virgin Mary stands in water at the entrance of a underground parking after floods in Mandelieu la Napoule, southern France, Sunday Oct.4, 2015. Flash flooding around the French Riviera has killed more than a dozen of people, some drowned in a retirement home and others trapped in cars and campsites. Torrents of muddy water inundated buildings, roads and railway tracks, disrupting movement along the Mediterranean coast Sunday. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau)

The flooding around the French Riviera killed at least 19 people, including the Englishwoman who drowned at the campsite, having been reportedly swept away by a wall of water while on holiday with her husband and people trapped in cars and in a retirement home. One person is still missing.

Helicopters patrolled the area and 27,000 homes were without electricity after the Brague River overflowed its banks and fierce thunderstorms poured more than 6.7in of rain on the region in two hours, the equivalent of two months rainfall.

President Francois Hollande visited the flood-stricken retirement home in the town of Biot and met with emergency workers.

He expressed condolences to families of victims and urged residents to remain cautious, with many roads still impassable.

Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said the dead included victims who had been trapped in a parking lot. Hundreds of emergency workers were involved in rescue efforts.