1 dead in UK, 100,000 French homes without power as storms batter Europe
The man died on Friday after a tree fell onto a caravan in Cornwall, while some rail services in Germany remain affected by the storms
A man was killed after a tree fell on a caravan in England after record winds brought by Storm Goretti, as 100,000 homes in France were still without power on Saturday.
Some 15 people have died in weather-related accidents this week across Europe as gale-force winds and storms caused travel mayhem, shut schools, and cut power to hundreds of thousands in freezing temperatures.
The storm barrelled through southwestern Cornwall and parts of Wales overnight Thursday to Friday, with gusts of up to 160km per hour (100 miles per hour) downing trees and leaving tens of thousands of homes without power.
UK police said a man was found dead in the town of Helston in Cornwall on Friday after a tree fell onto a caravan.
“Tragically, a man aged in his 50s was located deceased within the caravan,” Devon and Cornwall police said in a statement.
Most of the United Kingdom remained under a weather warning for snow and ice on Saturday, the Met Office national weather agency said, warning that black ice could cause “disruption” in Scotland and northern England.
Heavy snowfall followed by the storm meant that some 250 schools in Scotland were closed for much of the first week back after the Christmas break.