At least 10 people were killed and hundreds of thousands were without power when a storm with hurricane-strength winds swept through northern Europe late on Saturday and early yesterday.
Key bridges and airports were temporarily closed, while rail and ferry traffic was suspended.
PHOTO: AFP
In Sweden, at least six people were killed, including two whose cars were struck by falling tree branches, police and rescue officials said.
In Denmark, one motorist was killed when a tree crashed onto his car in Odense, 170km west of the capital, Copenhagen. Three others were killed by debris and falling trees.
Meteorologists described the storm as one of the worst to hit Scandinavia in years. The winds were clocked in some areas at more than 121kph.
Ferry traffic between Sweden, Denmark and Germany was heavily disrupted, with dozens of delays and cancellations, while floods inundated parts of Britain and left one ferry stranded.
In the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, winds damaged houses and forced train and ferry links and highway bridges to shut down. Two 20-year-old men whose kayak capsized on a lake near the town of Landwedel were missing, police said.
Airports in Copenhagen and Malmoe, Sweden's third largest city, were closed on Saturday night with many inbound flights rerouted to Stockholm, among them one carrying Sweden's Queen Silvia, who was on her way to Malmoe to attend a memorial service for people killed in the Asian tsunami.
Five of Sweden's 11 nuclear reactors were closed temporarily when salt water was blown into electricity distribution plants.
"Power supply has not been affected so far because of the weekend, but there may be problems on Monday [today] when work starts again,''said Jan-Erik Olsson, press spokesman for the Sydkraft utility company.
Many roads in southern Sweden were flooded, and citizens were urged to stay indoors. Bridges between the island of Funen, where Odense sits, and Zealand, where Copenhagen is located, were closed. Also closed was the bridge linking Copenhagen and Malmoe.
In southern Sweden, virtually all trains were canceled, and more than 410,000 households were without power yesterday morning, authorities said.
In Denmark, about 60,000 households lost electricity.
In Malmoe, a game in Sweden's top hockey league was stopped during the third period after the strong wind caused the roof of the arena to sway.
In neighboring Finland, sea levels reached record highs, cutting off several roads on the southern and southwestern coasts, but no major damage was reported. Several ships stayed in port after meteorologists issued storm warnings. Also, rescue teams piled thousands of sandbags and large bales of recycled paper on the waterfront in downtown Helsinki near the president's palace where the sea rose 1.5m above normal levels onto the streets and market place.
There were more than 100 flood warnings across England, Scotland and Wales, and thou-sands of homes had no electricity in central and southern England.
Carlisle, in northwest England, was deluged by water when the River Eden burst its banks and cut off roads.
Police asked boat owners to help them reach residents, and military helicopters were called in to evacuate at least 15 people from flooded homes.
"We've rescued a 90-year-old man. We've had a family including a young baby rescued out of an upstairs window," said Royal Air Force spokesman Mike Mulford.
Some 43 passengers and 57 crew were forced to spend the night on the P&O European Highlander ferry, which ran aground off the southwest coast of Scotland.
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
RSS