Storms bring chaos to Ireland, France, UK

LONDON: Ireland, Britain and France faced travel chaos on Saturday and one person died as a winter storm battered northwest Europe with strong winds, heavy rain, snow and ice.

Hampshire Police in southern England said a man died after a tree fell onto a car on a major road near Winchester early in the day.

Police in West Yorkshire said they were probing whether a second death from a traffic accident was linked to the storm. It is understood the road was not icy at the time of the incident.

Storm Bert left at least 60,000 properties in Ireland without power, and closed roads and some ferry and train routes on both sides of the Irish Sea.

Channel ports and airports in Britain were badly affected while in France, tens of thousands remained without power after Storm Caetano on Thursday. Hundreds of passengers were stranded when trains were halted by power cuts.

The heaviest snow hit Scotland and parts of northern and central England, with dozens of flood alerts in place.

The UK Met Office issued snow and ice warnings for those regions, saying there was a “good chance some rural communities could be cut off”.