Massive floods in France and Italy have not just killed people along with causing other destruction, but their sheer intensity has also swept out corpses from cemeteries. 

As many as 12 people have died since the storm pounded this Friday in Italy’s Liguria and Piedmont and Alpes-Maritimes region in France. 

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Over 600 rescuers and others on Tuesday were searching for about 20 people still missing, a spokesperson for the Alpes-Maritimes regional administration said. 

There were corpses found on the Italian side, she said, reports The Associated Press. 

However, she did not confirm where the bodies came and how many were found. It was also not told whether the bodies were amongst the ones who had died in the storm. 

Local officials have said graveyards in the French towns of Saint-Martin-de-Vesubie and Tende were partially swept off due to the floods. 

Tende Mayor Jean-Pierre Vassallo told Le Parisien newspaper that the village cemetery “was cut in two” and bodies came out. 

Forensic police, security personnel, firefighters, rescue divers, among others are working to identify the corpses, a spokesperson for France’s national gendarme service said.

He added that police are carrying out door-to-door checks in hamlets where roads, electricity, communication and water supplies are disrupted.