After weeks of drought and severe forest fires, increasingly dangerous storms and thunderstorms are moving from the west across much of Europe. In Carinthia, Austria, five people, including two children, were killed by fallen trees on Thursday. According to authorities, at least five people were killed in storms on the French island of Corsica and about 20 others were injured. Two people died in a storm in the Italian region of Tuscany.
Bad weather alert for large parts of southern Bavaria
Strong storms are expected in Bavaria from Thursday night. The German weather service warns of severe storms, especially in southern Bavaria.
Carinthia: Two children are killed by trees
In Austria, the storm ravaged the south of the country. According to the state weather service, storms of up to 139 kilometers per hour were measured. Several trees fell into a small bathing pond in St. Andrä, in Carinthia, the police and the Red Cross said. Two girls aged four and eight were killed and eleven people were injured, some seriously. Further north, three other people were killed by a tree in Gaming, Lower Austria.
Traffic in southern Austria is at a standstill
In Styria, Carinthia and East Tyrol, trains were sometimes stopped after the power supply for rail traffic failed due to the storm, as announced by the Austrian Federal Railways. Due to the gusts of wind, dozens of trees near Griffen fell on the southern highway (A2) in Carinthia. There were also power outages in tunnels. The important transport link to Italy was closed in several places for cleaning and repair work.
Tens of thousands of homes without electricity
In Styria, tens of thousands of homes were cut off from power supplies because high-voltage lines and 2,000 transformer stations were damaged. “In many cases, our colleagues have to clear their way to repair work with a chainsaw,” said an Energie Steiermark spokesperson at ORF. It can take days, if not weeks, to repair all the damage.