Storm Ciaran: Power outages in France

Cyclone Ciaran hit France and the UK on Thursday night with strong winds and waves. An autumn storm then hit the Netherlands and Germany.

At least seven people were killed and many others injured, officials said. A 46-year-old woman has died after a tree fell on Horse Hill.

The German weather service has issued a storm warning for coastal areas of the North Sea and a strong wind warning for parts of the Baltic Sea. In Germany, the lower internationally known as “Ciaren” is called “Emir”.

The fire department in Goslar said the storm in Harz was much stronger than initially expected. In North Rhine-Westphalia, downed trees from the storm were already disrupting train traffic on Thursday morning. The areas affected were Euskirchen, Remscheid, Mönchengladbach/Viersen and Dorsten.

Two people died and 15 were injured in France, including 7 firefighters. A lorry driver died when a tree fell on him. In Le Havre, a man was seriously injured by a windstorm. About 1.2 million homes were without power and hundreds of thousands of people were cut off from mobile communications. 13,500 firefighters responded to approximately 3,500 missions. More than 1,300 people were brought to safety.

Local winds were gusting to 200 kilometers per hour. A storm surge of 21 meters was measured off the Finistère department in Brittany, the western tip of France.

The storm also caused problems in England. Thousands of homes on England’s south coast were temporarily without power, PA news agency reported. Trees fell and roads were blocked. Hundreds of schools were closed. Many train operators in the Greater London area are urging people to make only essential journeys.

According to police, wind speeds were measured at 164 kilometers per hour on the island of Jersey in the southwest English Channel. “Please stay indoors. It’s too dangerous to be outside,” Jersey Police warned. One woman reported the hail: “Heavier and bigger than a golf ball and damaged three of our windows.”

2 people died after being caught in a tornado in Belgium. In a park in Gent, a tree fell on two pedestrians, killing one of them. In another park, a five-year-old child was killed in a playground when a large branch fell, newspaper De Standard reported. In Antwerp, one person was seriously injured after a roof structure collapsed.

In the Netherlands, one person died after a tree fell in Venre, near the Lower Rhine border, police said. In many places, trees fell and people were injured.

In the Netherlands, hundreds of flights were canceled due to the storm, Amsterdam airport spokeswoman Schiphol said. Due to the expected strong winds, shipping from the North Sea to the Westerschelde in the southwest of the country was also suspended.

The cyclone also hit parts of the Iberian Peninsula and claimed one life. A young woman has died after a tree fell in Madrid, emergency services said. 3 others sustained minor injuries. The north of Portugal and the north and center of Spain were particularly affected by “Ciaran”. Rail and air travel were affected.

In Madrid, Retiro city park, popular with tourists, was closed for security reasons. In the Balearic Islands, along with the holiday island of Mallorca, which is particularly popular with Germans, the orange alert primarily warned of high tides.