GALES WHIP UP HAVOC IN EUROPE

THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS • A powerful storm pummeled Europe with high winds and snow Thursday, killing at least seven people in three countries, grounding flights, halting trains, ripping roofs off buildings and flipping over trucks.

The Dutch weather service recorded gusts of up to 140 km/h in the port of Hook of Holland as the storm passed. Amsterdam’s Schiphol briefly halted flights for an hour, and airline KLM scrapped more than 200 flights even before the storm arrived. Trains were halted across the nation and in Germany.

Falling trees killed two 62-year-old men in the Netherlands, a woman south of Brussels, a 59-year-old man camping in the German town of Emmerich and a firefighter in the German town of Bad Salzungen.

In Lippstadt, in western Germany, a driver died when he lost control of his van in strong winds and drove into oncoming traffic. In German’s eastern state of Brandenburg, police said a gust of wind flipped a truck over a highway, killing the driver.

Police spokeswoman Jose Albers told Dutch national broadcaster NOS that authorities also were investigating whether gusts were to blame for the death of a 66-year-old man who fell through a Plexiglas roof in the central town of Vuren.

Social media in the Netherlands was flooded with images of people being blown from their bikes, cargo containers falling off a ship and damage to buildings, including a roof that peeled off a Rotterdam apartment block.

Authorities in the lowlying nation closed a storm barrier east of Amsterdam to prevent flooding as the storm pushed up water levels.

Traffic on Dutch roads was plunged into chaos, with the wind blowing over tractor trailers, toppling trees and hampering efforts to clean up the mess.

In neighbouring Belgium, the port of Ghent closed down because of the high winds, and tram traffic was halted in parts of Brussels.

In Germany, police reported several injuries as well as the four deaths and the national railway suspended long-distance trains. In western Germany, some 100,000 people were left without electricity and schools closed down. The square in front of Cologne’s famous Cathedral was partially cordoned off amid fears that masonry could be blown loose. A supermarket roof peeled off in Menden.

The storm toppled a crane in Kirtorf, central Germany.

In Britain, power was knocked out to thousands of homes. Gale-force winds damaged power lines that supply trains and brought trees crashing onto the tracks, causing severe delays for thousands of commuters.