Three people, including a British woman, have died after several days of heavy rain sent rivers flooding over their banks across southern France.

The rains have caused “significant damage” requiring rescue workers to carry out nearly 1,800 operations since Sunday, an interior ministry statement said on Thursday, after eight departments were placed on high alert for flash floods.

Among the victims was a 68-year-old British woman who was found by emergency workers near her home in the town of Cazouls- d’Hérault in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. She was taken by helicopter to hospital but died overnight, a local official in the town of Beziers said.

Officials said later that it was not clear whether the two other reported deaths were directly linked to the flooding.

In the Gard region, a man in his 90s was killed on Wednesday when his car came off the road.

Authorities in the Pyrénées-Orientales prefecture told AFP that a homeless man was found dead on Tuesday. An inquiry was under way to determine the cause of his death.

About 700 homes remain without power in Herault and Gard, and the flooding could halt train services across much of the area until at least 4 November, the SNCF train operator said. “This toll could have been higher,” the transport minister, Elisabeth Borne, said while inspecting the damage in Béziers, a city which was hit particularly hard.

Flooding also killed a man in northeastern Spain this week, and five people were missing, officials said Wednesday.

Flooding and landslides forced the closure of nearly 50 roads and halted train services in the region, as well as forcing the diversion of 37 flights, Spanish authorities said.