Storm in central Europe kills 2, fallen trees disrupt travel


High winds swept across parts of central Europe on Monday, leaving two people dead, disrupting transport and causing power outages for thousands of households.

Slovak police said a 14-year-old girl was killed by a fallen tree in Nitra, east of Bratislava, and an unspecified number of her fellow students were injured, one of them seriously.

In eastern Germany, police said a 41-year-old driver was killed when a tree fell on his car near the town of Wittenberg.

In the Czech Republic, some 30,000 households were without electricity, while fallen trees disrupted roads and train travel.

Long-distance lines from Berlin to Hamburg and Hannover, and to Stralsund in the country’s northeastern corner, were among those closed on Monday morning and then reopened. In southern Germany, a fallen tree forced the closure of the Nuremberg-Augsburg line.

Near Wolfsburg, between Hannover and Berlin, a high-speed train ran into a tree that had fallen on the tracks. The driver was slightly injured.

Strong winds were expected in northern and eastern Germany through Monday afternoon. Berlin’s two zoos were closed for the day because of a risk of falling branches, and animals brought indoors.

Near Dortmund in western Germany, the fire service used a boat and makeshift walkways to rescue sheep from a field flooded by heavy rain. News agency dpa reported that the field was submerged under as much as 2 meters (6.5 feet) of water, and that some animals died in the flooding. Around 200 were rescued.