Severe storm batters Western Europe; 1 dead, 23 injured

Reporting from LONDON —  A violent storm packing winds up to 100 mph battered parts of Western Europe on Wednesday, derailing trains, toppling trees and halting flights. Authorities said one person was killed and at least 23 others were injured in France and Switzerland.

The high winds played havoc on transport, derailing trains in Switzerland and Germany and leaving hundreds of thousands of homes across France, Switzerland, Britain and Ireland without power.

Officials said one skier was killed in the French Alps after being hit by a falling tree in Morillon in Haute-Savoie.

Eight people were injured when a train was blown off the tracks near Lenk, a town south of Bern, the Swiss capital, local media reported. In western Germany, a train derailed near Luenen when it crashed into a tree that had fallen onto the tracks, according to the dpa news agency. No injuries were reported.

The storm forced the cancellation of flights at Zurich and Basel airports and toppled a truck on a Swiss highway. Thousands of households at Lake Zurich were left without power, and firefighters were called to help with toppled trees blocking streets and flooding due to heavy rain.

Swiss police say several people were stuck inside a cable car that halted in the ski resort of Pizol in the Swiss Alps. St. Gallen police said several rescue teams were trying to get them out. High winds prompted ski lifts to stop running at other Swiss resorts as well.

In England, the storm brought hail and lightning. Overturned vehicles forced officials to close portions of three major highways. Some bridges were also shut down.

Extremely high tides caused the partial collapse of a harbor wall in Cornwall in southwestern England, bringing seawater flooding in.

The country’s main weather forecaster, the Met Office, said gusts reached 100 mph in Cumbria, 280 miles northwest of London, early Wednesday.

The storm battered northern France with winds surpassing 90 mph, some of the worst gusts to hit the country in years. Many people posted photos of destroyed cars, collapsed scaffolding and uprooted trees on social media.

France’s national electricity provider said the storm left about 200,000 households without electricity, including 30,000 in the Paris region.

Around Paris, a falling tree hit a car and seriously injured one person, while another resident was seriously hurt falling from a building. In all, the Interior Ministry said 15 people in France were injured, with four in serious condition, following accidents caused by high winds.

Strong winds also caused delays at Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris, as extra precautions were taken to safely get travelers into aircraft.

In Germany, highways near Duisburg and Juelich in the west were partially blocked because of toppled trees and flooding. The zoos in Munich and Augsburg in Bavaria closed for the day and the railway going up the Zugspitze, Germany’s tallest mountain, was shut down because of the storm.

In neighboring Austria, a ski-jumping practice in Innsbruck was canceled because of the snow and strong winds.

UPDATES:

3 p.m.: This article was updated to report that at least 23 people were injured in France and Switzerland during Wednesday’s storm.

This article was originally published at 9:20 a.m.