Some 330,000 homes have been left without power after the first major snows of the winter hit south-eastern France, electricity network operator Enedis said on Friday morning.

A 63-year-old man was killed on Thursday evening when a tree fell on him as he tried to clear another fallen tree from a roadway in Isere department, public broadcaster FranceInfo reported.

Local authorities said the A7 motorway in Isere was closed to heavy goods vehicles, but restrictions imposed on other routes on Thursday were lifted.

State railway company SNCF cancelled all trains between Grenoble and the Rhone Valley town of Valence.

Several other lines in the region would be out of action until the afternoon or suffer disturbances, it said.

NAN