BERLIN: A storm battered Europe with hurricane-force winds and heavy rains, killing at least six people and causing severe travel disruptions as it moved eastward across the continent on Monday and bore down on Germany.

After striking Britain and Ireland on Sunday, the storm moved on, leaving a trail of damage including power cuts for tens of thousands of homes across Europe.

A woman and her 15-year-old daughter died in Poland after the storm ripped off the roof of a ski rental equipment building in the mountain resort of Bukowina Tatrzanska and sent it hurtling onto people standing near a ski lift, police said. Three people also were injured in the incident.

In Sweden, one man drowned after the boat he and another person were sailing in on the southern lake of Fegen capsized. The victim was washed ashore and later died. The other person is still missing, according to the Aftonbladet daily.

Two men, one in the north of Slovenia and another in southern England, also died after their cars were hit by falling trees. And in Germany, a driver died after crashing his truck into a trailer parked by workers clearing storm debris off a highway in the southern state of Hesse.

Five people were injured in the Czech Republic in incidents related to the storm, authorities said, including a woman who was hospitalised after she was hit by a tree.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2020