Tue, Oct 31, 2000 page1

• Europe battered by killer storms

  CHAOS Four people died in Britain alone as gales and rain swept across the country, bringing transportation to a near halt across the western part of the continent

  • AFP
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  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.

  

  Workers remove fallen scaffolding yesterday, blown down during overnight storms, from a car in East London. The worst storm of the year lashed Britain with driving rain and gale-force winds, killing at least four people and causing transport chaos.

  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.
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