Winter storm sweeps into Austria

A storm with hurricane-force winds and heavy rain has killed at least seven people and caused severe travel disruption across northern Europe.

In Austria, the city of Salzburg near the German border was battered by Ciara on Tuesday.

Public broadcaster ORF reported that more than 400 firefighters worked for hours to remove fallen trees from crushed cars and roads.

They also had to secure a huge metal roof blown off a building. No one was injured, ORF reported.

German railroad operator Deutsche Bahn, which had shut down all long-distance trains on Monday, said most of its service resumed on Tuesday with the exception of some trains in southern regions still being buffetted by gusty winds.

Schools across Germany reopened.

Deaths due to the fierce storm were reported in Poland, Sweden, the UK, Slovenia, Germany and the Czech Republic.

In northern Bavaria, where a gust of over 160mph was recorded, Ciara produced a record amount of electricity being fed into the German grid from wind turbines, equivalent to almost 44 nuclear power plants.

The German Weather Service said strong winds would keep blasting much of the country on Tuesday but the brunt of the storm had moved to the southeast.

In northeast Germany, a new storm was expected to reach the Baltic coast.

The German Weather Service also forecast heavy rains for most of the country as well as for France and Belgium.

In England and Scotland, the Met Office national weather agency still had 85 flood warnings in force as torrential rains caused numerous rivers to overflow their banks.