A NORTH EAST teacher was back at work yesterday only days after she escaped the treacherous floods that have blighted areas of southern France and claimed six lives this week.

Firefighters had to rescue Sarah Graham, of Hurworth, near Darlington, from the youth hostel she was staying at on Tuesday morning as water began seeping into the building.

The mother-of-three, who had been staying with a group in L'ile de la Barthelasse, near Avignon, said she was lucky to get out of the area when she did.

The group included Sam Cabourn, from Manfield, near Darlington, who has been on a teacher placement at Hurworth Primary School.

Mrs Graham, a teaching assistant at the school, said: "At the time, we did not feel in danger, but looking back, we really were at risk.

"Had we stayed any longer than we did, the situation would have been a lot worse.

"We kept ahead of the game all the time simply by luck."

Torrential rain swept through the Bouches-du-Rhone region, near Marseille, early in the week, causing the river to rise at 30cm an hour and break its banks.

Thousands of people have been evacuated from the storm-ravaged region, with ground-floor inmates at Arles Prison yesterday relocated as water came into their cells.

As forecaster Metro France lifted its high-risk warning, residents of the many towns and villages affected waded through the water, mud and debris to assess the damage to their properties.

Fortunately for Mrs Graham, who had been abroad for almost a month working in a French school as part of her teacher-training, she managed to get out of the region.

The group of English students she was with was rescued from the hostel at 10am on Tuesday and relocated before waters rose drastically.

Their luggage was later recovered by firefighters using a boat to get to the building.

By Wednesday morning, the picture had grown bleak as water engulfed homes and businesses, and abandoned caravans from a local campsite floated aimlessly.

Mrs Graham said: "It was just a raging torrent, with water covering roads and fields. It was scary how quickly it had risen."

She managed to leave the region and fly from Paris to England, arriving home on Thursday evening.

She said: "I think we were all relieved to be back on dry land, but there was also a feeling of disappointment that we had to leave the schools we had been training at without saying goodbye.

"I think we were lucky though, we used our initiative to get out and it seems we did that just in time."