At least six dead as storm hits Europe

A powerful storm has hit Europe with high winds and snow, killing at least four people in three countries, grounding flights, halting trains, ripping roofs off buildings and flipping over trucks.

The Dutch national weather service recorded wind gusts of up to 87 mph in the southern port of Hook of Holland as the storm passed over.

Amsterdam’s Schiphol briefly halted flights for an hour in the morning, and airline KLM had already scrapped more than 200 flights before the storm. Trains were halted across the nation and in Germany.

Falling trees killed two 62-year-old men in the Netherlands, a woman south of the Belgian capital of Brussels, a 59-year-old man at a camping site 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, police said.

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

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

In Germany, police reported several injuries as well as the three deaths and the national railway company suspended long-distance train services across the country.