DEATH GALES LASH BRITAIN
Two dead… and a bin blows over in Scotland
STORM victims were being comforted last night as 100mph winds lashed the UK, blowing over a wheelie bin in Edinburgh.
The 80-litre bin toppled over and was blown a quarter of a mile down the city’s Leith Walk.
The drama was captured by an amateur cameraman and broadcast to shocked BBC Scotland viewers.
More seriously, a 50-year-old man was killed in Kent when a tree collapsed on his van and a second man died after a tanker in the Channel was hit by a large wave.
Warnings
Thousands of people were left without power across the country. And Force 10 winds in the English Channel forced the Port of Dover to close for a time.
The Met Office earlier issued severe weather warnings for most regions.
Around the UK, trees fell on to rail tracks and power lines, lorries blew over on busy roads and heavy rains led to flood warnings. Part of the roof of the grandstand at Epsom racecourse in Surrey was also blown off and on the A66 in County Durham a lorry fell over on the busy moorland route.
Some East Coast Main Line trains between London and Scotland had to start and terminate at Newcastle-upon-tyne.
Buses replaced trains on some services between London and Harrogate and Hull.
High winds forced the closure of the QEII Bridge on the M25 between Essex and Kent.
And the Tamar Bridge in the South West has been closed to high-sided vehicles.
In Cheshire, the northbound M6 was closed when a lorry blew over on the Thelwall Viaduct near Warrington.
Evacuated
In Scotland, more than 70,000 homes were also without power.
In Wales, six homes in Dolgellau, Gwynedd, were evacuated because of arcing power lines in high winds.
Heavy rainfall has led to flood alerts across Scotland, Wales and south west England on account of all the water.