Torrential rain and gale-force winds lashed southern Britain in the worst storm for more than a decade yesterday, causing travel chaos and serious flooding to many regions.
Parts of northern France and Belgium also suffered under the severe weather conditions, and rail, ferry and air services were badly disrupted.
Britain was the worst hit, with up to five people reported killed, much of the nation's rail network brought to a standstill, many roads closed and parts of the south under water.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Another person died and three were injured in France, police said.
In Britain, rail passengers already facing severe delays due to maintenance work at the weekend were stranded as operators suspended services.
By mid-morning only a trickle of trains was reaching London's main stations and hardly any were getting out.
"Nobody should venture out unless it is absolutely essential," Ray Kemp of the government's Environment Agency said.
"It's one of the severest storms, if not the severest storm, since 1987. It is very much a threat to life and limb," he told BBC radio.
Four people died as a direct or indirect result of the conditions.
In Taunton, southwest England, a motorcyclist was killed when he hit a tree on the road early yesterday, and another man died when his car skidded on surface water in South London and crashed.
On Sunday, one person was killed and two seriously hurt in Surrey, south of London, when a tree hit two vehicles. A man of 35 fell overboard in gale force winds on Sunday from a ferry between Rosslare in the Irish Republic and Fishguard in Wales.
A newspaper also reported the death on Sunday of a woman who slipped in heavy rain at a waterfall in Wales.
Several other people were hurt, some seriously, in storm-related incidents across the country.
In London, many underground and overland suburban railway lines were closed after 145kph winds whipped a mass of debris on to the tracks.
Eurostar high-speed train services linking London, Paris and Brussels were suspended, officials said.
"Nothing is running because we haven't got the routes, lines are blocked in various places and we are advising people to make alternative arrangements," a spokesman said.
The high-speed express between London and the country's main international airport, Heathrow, also ground to a standstill, as did the underground service there.
By mid-morning British Airways had cancelled 66 flights from Heathrow and a further 22 from Gatwick, with more due to be scrapped later and many switched to other airports around the country.
There was chaos on the roads too, with long sections of freeway closed and hundreds of kilometers of diversions in operation.
Large parts of the M25 ring-road running round the capital were closed as drainage channels failed to cope with the sheer volume of rain.
Scores of court cases in London were either being delayed or put off until today as judges, lawyers, witnesses, defendants and staff failed to get in.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat