FRENCH rescue services are evacuating hundreds of pilgrims from hotels threatened by flood waters from a rain-swollen river in the Catholic shrine town of Lourdes.
Lourdes's grotto is said to be the site where the Virgin Mary appeared to a 14-year-old girl named Bernadette in 1858. The town draws about six million visitors a year. A spokesman for the sanctuary said the grotto itself was under 1.5m of water after the Gave River over-ran its banks. Visits were temporarily suspended and about 500 people were being evacuated from riverside hotels.
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