Storm hits central Europe

2004-11-19 20:20

Berlin - A storm accompanied by violent gusts of wind, heavy snowfalls and chilling temperatures knifed into the centre of Europe on Friday after earlier causing major disruption in Scandinavia and Poland.

Winds gusting up to 180km/h were recorded at Wendelstein in Bavaria. Fallen trees disrupted traffic in several regions, including Stuttgart in the southeast.

Heavy snow fell on Lower Saxony, obstructing traffic and cutting off domestic electricity supplies.

The snow was responsible for a multi-vehicle pile-up on the A3 highway near Westerwald, causing damage estimated at €150 000.

Police said a 49-year-old man was killed when his car hit a patch of black ice and skidded off the road in Saxony-Anhalt. Another man died of exposure in the Sauerland.

Austrian authorities said the driver of a small van was killed near Vienna when a gust of wind blew his vehicle into the path of a vehicle coming from the opposite direction. The driver of the other vehicle was reported to be seriously injured.

A worker was seriously injured when he was blown off scaffolding at Styria in southern Austria, and a pedestrian was hit by a flying tile in Salzburg.

Overturned trucks

The APA news agency said the high winds overturned five heavy trucks, caused numerous electricity cuts and resulted in blocked lines of traffic dozens of kilometres long.

In the Czech Republic, a 27-year-old man was crushed and killed when the gable of his house collapsed near Brno.

Road and rail services were seriously affected and hundreds of trees were uprooted.

The Czech-German border at Cinovec/Altenburg was closed for several hours Friday because of heavy snowfalls, police said.

Earlier, at least seven people including a six-month-old child were killed in Poland on Thursday in gales that widely disrupted road traffic and left tens of thousands of homes without electricity.

The massive storm also swept across Scandinavia on Thursday disrupting land, sea and air traffic.

- AFP