Storm Eleanor barrels through Europe
PARIS: Winter storm Eleanor swept into France, Belgium and the Netherlands yesterday after tearing through England and Northern Ireland, cutting power to tens of thousands of people and forcing airports and train services to halt operations.
A skiier was killed by a falling tree at Morillon in the French Alps while 15 others have been injured by the storm across the country, four of them seriously, civil defence spokesman Michael Bernier told AFP.
Another person was hurt by a falling tree in the southern Dutch village of Heesch.
Heavy winds led the airports in Strasbourg and Basel-Mulhouse on France’s border with Germany and Switzerland to close before they were reopened shortly after midday.
At Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport, 60 per cent of departures were delayed yesterday morning, as were a third of arrivals, while a handful of flights had to be rerouted before the winds eased back a bit.
The winds were also wreaking havoc with train services in several French regions.
About 200,000 homes across northern France were without electricity, while ‘ particularly intense’ flooding was expected on the Atlantic coasts.
The Eiffel Tower, which attracts six million visitors a year, was closed until at least yesterday afternoon, while worries about falling tree branches prompted Paris officials to close all city parks for the day. — AFP