Death toll from storms climbs to 13 including three children across France, Italy and Austria

‘Hellish’ storms sweeping across Europe have claimed the lives of at least 13 people as hurricane-force winds rip up trees from the ground, fire golf ball-sized hailstones at homes and flood the streets with huge downpours.

Three children are among the dead, as well as a British woman in her 60s who was swept away by raging torrents in front of her husband while kayaking in Corsica.

The extreme weather produced 140mph gusts, leaving 45,000 households without power on the French island, where…