Four people died on Thursday after a storm battered northwest Europe, AFP reported.
Two people died in the Netherlands, which bore the brunt of the storm. The Schiphol airport in Capital city Amsterdam was forced to suspended all flights. They resumed air traffic hours later, though delays and cancellations continued. The Dutch railway service, too, halted all trains.
KLM, the national carrier, had scrapped more than 200 flights before the storm, and the main railway station in The Hague was closed as authorities feared that the storm would blow away parts of the station’s new glass roof.
In Germany, schools remained closed as the winter storm was expected to bring heavy snow, rain and gusty winds. Authorities in western and northern parts of the country urged people to not leave their homes on Thursday, The Washington Post reported.
German Railways cancelled all long-distance trains. A 59-year-old man in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the country’s most populous province, died instantly after a tree fell on him, the police said. The square in front of Cologne’s cathedral was partially cordoned off as a precaution in case stones fall because of gusty winds, AP reported.
In Belgium, a woman is believed to have died after a tree fell on her car when she was driving through the woods in the Grez-Doiceau area, about 35 km south of Brussels.
In Romania, snowstorms and high winds forced the government to close dozens of schools, several main roads and ports. Interior Minister Carmen Dan said that 32,000 people in 13 counties across the country are without electricity, The Washington Post reported.
Meanwhile, in England, gale-force winds of up to 110 km per hour were recorded. Thousands of homes in southeast England are without electricity, the Independent reported. Trains were delayed as the wind destroyed a few overhead power lines and trees fell on tracks. Some services to the King’s Cross station in London were also disrupted.
Three people were killed in winter storms that had caused disruptions across western Europe earlier this month. The storm – named Burglind in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, and Eleanor elsewhere – had arrived at a time a cold front set in, and hit Ireland before passing through United Kingdom and then went towards continental Europe.
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