At least 10 people have been killed as a result after Storm Ciaran battered Western Europe with record winds of up to 200 km/h, causing travel chaos with closed ports and disruptions to flights and rail service.
Italian authorities declared a state of emergency and reported record rainfall along with the deaths of three people in Tuscany on Friday. The three deceased, according to Tuscany Governor Eugenio Giani, included an 85-year-old man who was discovered drowned in his home.
"What happened tonight in Tuscany has a name: climate change," Giani wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Florence mayor Dario Nardella said the "situation is critical" in the city.
Trees felled by gale-force winds caused most of the deaths in Europe. In the Belgian city of Ghent, a five-year-old Ukrainian boy and a 64-year-old woman were killed by falling branches, AFP reported.
Falling trees had earlier killed a lorry driver in his vehicle in northern France's Aisne region, and French authorities also reported the death of a man who fell from his balcony in the port city of Le Havre.
A man in the Dutch town of Venray, a woman in central Madrid and a person in Germany also died.
Some 1.2 million French homes lost electricity as the storm lashed the northwest coast. Almost 700,000 remained without power on Thursday evening, according to network manager Enedis.
French President Emmanuel Macron was due to visit the storm-battered region of Brittany on Friday, the presidential palace said.
The storm interrupted rail, air and maritime traffic in Belgium where the port of Antwerp was closed and flights from Brussels were disrupted.
The wind gusts in the western Brittany region were "exceptional" and "many absolute records have been broken", national weather service Meteo-France said on X.
The prefect for the local department said gusts as high as 207 km/h (129 mph) were recorded at Pointe du Raz on the tip of the northwest coast, while the port city of Brest saw winds hit 156 km/h.
In southern England, hundreds of schools were closed as large waves powered by winds of 135 km/h crashed along the coastline.
On the Channel Island of Jersey, residents had to be evacuated to hotels overnight as gusts of up to 164 km/h damaged homes, according to local media.
More than 200 flights were cancelled at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, a major European hub. In Spain, more than 80 flights were cancelled at 11 airports.
Air, rail and ferry services saw cancellations and long delays across several countries.
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