BERLIN: The British Isles and Germany were battered on Thursday by a severe storm front packing gale-force winds that left one man dead in northwest England, with forecasters predicting worse to come.

Winds of up to 120 kilometres per hour ripping through western and central Germany, moving eastwards. Meteorologists said the storm was shaping up to be the worst to hit the country in four or five year.

In England, a 54-year-old man was killed when a tree smashed into his car windscreen early in the morning in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, with the storm causing chaos on road and rail transport and closing ferry ports, officials said.

“The crew found a large branch had fallen from a tree on to the road. Part of it had gone into the windscreen of a 4x4 car,” said West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman Murray MacGregor. The storm has caused heavy rains throughout Germany, with flight cancellations at Frankfurt airport, Germany's busiest, a spokesman for its operators Fraport said.

At least 17 flights had been cancelled by 1000 GMT. “If this hits all of Germany, things could become pretty bad,” he said.

He advised people to remove furniture and potted plants from their balconies and to keep windows and doors closed to minimise storm damage.

In Italy, meanwhile, 80 flights were cancelled early on Thursday at Rome's main Fiumicino airport because of fog.

Flights to or from Brussels, Casablanca, Paris, Nice, Munich, Florence, Venice and Amsterdam were among the 38 departing and 42 arriving flights cancelled, the report said.—AFP