2 yıl önce

Casualties as Storm Eunice batters Europe

The storm smashed through Western Europe, killing at least eight people as high winds felled trees, cancelled train services and ripped sections off the roof of London's O2 Arena.

Reuters

Eunice's winds knocked out power to more than 140,000 homes in England, mostly in the southwest, and 80,000 properties in Ireland.

Storm Eunice has killed at least eight people in Europe on Friday, pummelling Britain with record-breaking winds and forcing millions to take shelter as it disrupted flights, trains and ferries across Western Europe.

London was eerily empty after the British capital was placed under its first ever "red" weather warning, meaning there is "danger to life".

At least three people died in Britain, including a man in southern England killed when a car hit a tree, another man whose windshield was struck by debris in northwest England and a woman in her 30s who died in London when a tree fell on a car, police said,

In the Netherlands, firefighters said three people were killed by falling trees in and around Amsterdam, and in neighboring Belgium an elderly man died when high winds pushed him into a canal in Ypres.

In County Wexford, Ireland, a local government worker was killed as he responded to the scene of a fallen tree, the local council said.

As well as in London, the highest weather alert level was declared across southern England, South Wales and the Netherlands, with many schools closed and rail travel paralysed, as towering waves breached sea walls along the coasts.

Massive power outages

Meanwhile, Eunice's winds knocked out power to more than 140,000 homes in England, mostly in the southwest, and 80,000 properties in Ireland, utility companies said.

Around the UK capital, three people were taken to hospital after suffering injuries in the storm, and a large section of the roof on the capital's Millennium Dome was shredded by the gales.

One wind gust of 122 miles (196 km) per hour was measured on the Isle of Wight off southern England, "provisionally the highest gust ever recorded in England", the Met Office said.

At the Tan Hill Inn, Britain's highest pub in Yorkshire, staff were busy preparing even if the winds remained merely blustery in the region of northern England.

"But with the snow coming in now, the wind's increasing, we're battening down the hatches, getting ready for a bad day and worse night," pub maintenance worker Angus Leslie told AFP news agency.

'Sting jet'

Scientists said the Atlantic storm's tail could pack a "sting jet", a rarely seen meteorological phenomenon that brought havoc to Britain and northern France in the "Great Storm" of 1987.

Eunice caused high waves to batter the Brittany coast in northwest France, while Belgium, Denmark and Sweden all issued weather warnings. Long-distance and regional trains were halted in northern Germany.

Hundreds of flights were cancelled or delayed at London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports and Schiphol in Amsterdam.

One easyJet flight from Bordeaux endured two aborted landings at Gatwick – which saw wind gusts peak at 78 miles per hour – before being forced to return to the French city.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has placed the British army on standby, tweeted: "We should all follow the advice and take precautions to keep safe."

SOURCE: AFP