Hurricane force winds battered parts of Europe on Thursday, killing 29 people, including two toddlers, and triggering a dramatic air-sea rescue from a sinking cargo ship in the English Channel.
The storms brought torrential rains and winds gusting at close to 170kph to areas of southern Britain, northern France, the Netherlands, Germany and the Czech Republic.
In all, 12 people were killed in storm-related accidents in England, seven in Germany, five in the Netherlands, three in the Czech Republic and two in France. Many of the deaths were caused by traffic accidents and falling debris.
PHOTO: AFP
Meteorologists at London's Met Office said the winds reached "severe gale force" as they crossed Britain and were the highest recorded since January 1990.
But they warned that the system would intensify as it headed east across the continent. Winds of almost 170kph were recorded later on Thursday in Germany.
"Denmark, Netherlands and Germany were expected to be more severely affected by the storm as it tracked across them through this evening," the office said on its Web site.
In Britain, however, the port of Dover re-opened on Thursday evening after closing for part of the day, and the Eurostar high-speed train company whose services connect London to Paris and Brussels said its operations were to return to normal yesterday, after having been suspended on Thursday.
In Munich, an 18-month-old baby was crushed to death by a door that was torn off its hinges, while a two-year-old boy was killed when a brick wall collapsed on top of him in north London.
Meanwhile, a 73-year-old man was killed after a barn door fell on him in Bavaria.
Falling trees and pylons claimed the lives of six motorists in Britain, including the managing director of central England's Birmingham airport, killed when a branch fell on his car as he was driving to work.
In addition, five elderly men and women were killed.
In the southern Dutch town of Riel an 11-year-old boy died after he was hit by a car, whose driver said the child was blown into the car by a sudden gust.
In the Czech Republic a fireman was killed by a falling tree, while two youths were crushed when a tree fell on their car on the outskirts of the capital Prague.
The high winds caused chaos across the country, cutting power lines and disrupting transport with forecasters warning of worse in store during the night.
Some 20,000 households in Austria were without electricity because of trees falling on power lines, while more than 30,000 households across the northeast of England suffered a similar fate after the storms brought down overhead power lines.
In the English Channel, 26 crew who abandoned their sinking freighter were airlifted to safety in a daring joint French-British operation launched in hazardous conditions.
The French coast guard said all the men who had been huddling in a lifeboat had been winched on board British Sea King helicopters and were taken to the navy base at Culdrose in southwestern England.
They had been forced to leave their London-registered cargo ship, the MS Napoli, after it developed a 1.5m gash just above the waterline.
German meteorologists said the storm was shaping up to be the worst in five years and authorities warned people to go outside only in exceptional circumstances.
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