Weather front sweeps across much of Europe bringing down trees and overpasses, with more than 50 injuries reported in Britain
A hurricane-force gusts of more than 100mph swept across parts of eastern Europe overnight, leading to six deaths and injuring more than 50 people.
The centre of the storm, known as Yann, covered eastern Poland, Czech Republic, and Slovakia with strong winds that crashed buildings, brought down trees and closed schools. The Emergency Ministry in the Czech Republic said 27 people were injured, 12 of them seriously.
Winds gusting up to 120km/h and reaching up to 100mph were recorded at the Polish Baltic Sea coast. In Poland, gusts also hit 101mph at Lutz, 41mph at Lomza and 46mph at Ostrava.
The government issued a weather warning for Poland, while Czech Television said the weather system had caused power cuts to 3,800 households in the western town of Smets at the coastal city of Wenceslas Square.
The storm, which appeared to be one of the most powerful of the year, was the result of a weather front crossing Europe and headed towards the Alps and France, meteorologists said.
Europe braced for the arrival of the storm on Thursday and Turkey’s prime minister, Binali Yıldırım, said on his official Twitter account the gusts were the strongest ever recorded there.
A government statement said the same weather front had contributed to a landslide that killed a woman and three children in the southeast of the country and in Bekasi district of Istanbul a woman was killed by an electric line.
In Greece, the meteorological office said wind gusts blew down an overpass in the southern town of Perama and had damaged road and bridge maintenance equipment at Chalki, east of Athens. Greece also issued warnings for flash floods and landslides in the next 24 hours, the meteorological office said.
The wind storm took place on what would normally be a long holiday weekend in Romania, Greece and Cyprus as Orthodox Christians mark the feast of St Nicholas and Muslims observe the end of Ramadan.
Romania also closed all public schools on Thursday. However, and despite the harsh weather, there were no reports of injuries in the country.
In neighbouring Serbia there were no reports of any injuries from the storm.
With the storm bringing unusually high temperatures and high winds over the weekend, authorities closed down many public parks and educational institutions.