Violent tornado in northern France

A violent tornado has struck the communities of Hautmont and Maubeuge in northern France on August 3rd at around 20:30 UTC. Severe weather experts of the Belgian Meteorological Institute Karim Hamid and Karel Holvoet have conducted a damage survey and rate the damage F4 on the Fujita scale, with wind speeds likely exceeding 300 km/h or 90 m/s. Their report (in Dutch) can be found here. Pierre Mahieu and Emmanuel Wesolek of Keraunos have published this case study in French. The severity of the damage is also clear from images that have appeared in the press, for example the following...

photo: AFP / P. Frutie

...and from these photos. The tornado sadly caused 3 fatalities and left 18 people injured. Moreover, more than 700 homes were damaged, among which a few dozens have become inhabitable. A television crew of LC1 has flown over the affected areas resulting in the following TV report.
ESTOFEX had initially issued a level 1 for this area. It appeared that strong low-level wind shear and high storm-relative helicity would enable rotating updrafts to form with a chance of tornadoes. However, low amounts of instability forecast by the numerical model precluded the issuance of a higher risk category until the mid-evening. At 20:12, shortly before the deadly tornado struck, a forecast update was issued because it appeared that strong convective storms were ongoing in an environment much more unstable than expected earlier in the day. This is one of the strongest, if not the strongest tornado that occurred since the start of the European Storm Forecast Experiment.