Deaths and destruction as storm hits Europe

THE WEEKEND winter storm that battered Europe with hurricane-force winds and heavy rains killed at least six people and caused severe travel disruption as it moved eastward across the continent.

In Germany, a driver died after crashing his truck into a trailer parked by workers clearing storm debris off a motorway in southern Hesse state.

A woman and her 15-year-old daughter died in Poland after the storm ripped off the roof of a ski rental equipment building in the mountain resort of Bukowina Tatrzanska and sent it crashing on to people standing near a ski lift, police said.

Three people were also injured in the incident, near the border with Slovakia.

In Sweden, one man drowned after the boat he and another person were sailing in on the southern lake of Fegen capsized.

The victim was washed ashore and later died. The other person is still missing.

A man died in the north of Slovenia after his car was hit by a falling tree.

The storm has now largely passed through France, though meteorologists warned that the Mediterranean island of Corsica could see winds as high as 200kph. Waves lashed the northern coast, and high winds blew a lorry on to its side on the A2 that links Belgium with France.

Up to 130,000 homes were without electricity, stretching from Brittany, in western France, through Normandy and the northern regions. In Germany, utility companies were also scrambling to restore power to some 50,000 homes in northern Bavaria, where a top wind of more than 160kph (100mph) was recorded. The storm resulted in a record amount of electricity being fed into the German grid from wind turbines, equivalent to almost 44 nuclear power plants.