Storm Eleanor: Travel disruption and homes without power

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Media caption,

Video footage shows stormy scenes in Ireland and the UK

Thousands of homes lost power and travel was disrupted after Storm Eleanor battered the UK with gusts of up to 100mph (161kph).

The Met Office said the strongest winds had now passed for the UK, where four people were injured by falling trees.

Numerous road closures and public transport delays were caused by trees and debris during the storm.

As the storm swept into France, a skier was killed by a falling tree in the Alps and 15 others injured elsewhere.

In Cornwall, some residents have been advised to leave their homes at high tide because of a collapsed stone harbour wall in Portreath. The council says the advice is a precaution.

The Met Office said that during the storm gusts of more than 70mph were recorded across much of the UK.

The strongest gusts were 100mph recorded at Great Dun Fell in Cumbria at 01:00, 90mph at Orlock Head, Northern Ireland and 89mph on the Isle of Wight.

Power restored

More than 25,000 homes in Northern Ireland lost power but this has been restored to most of them, with fewer than 1,000 homes still without electricity.

About 400 homes in Wales have had power restored.

Scottish and English provider SSE said it had restored power to 18,000 homes since midnight after outages caused by the storm.

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

The Met Office said that during the storm gusts of more than 70mph were recorded across much of the UK

In Worcestershire, a man was injured by a falling tree and another man was treated by paramedics after a tree fell on a car in Hensol, Vale of Glamorgan.

In Hinton Admiral, Hampshire, two people were freed from a car, which had been struck by a tree during the heavy winds, at about 03:00.

Both men were taken to hospital, since then the driver has been arrested on suspicion of being under the influence of drugs while at the wheel.

Image source, Hants Response Cops
Image caption,

The driver of a car struck by a tree in Hampshire was arrested on suspicion of being under the influence of drugs, after being rescued by police

Image source, Tyler Jewers, Tom Madge-Wyld, Tom Worley
Image caption,

(L-R) Damage caused by the storm in Gateshead, Finsbury Park in London and in Margate, Kent

A body was recovered on the coast of East Sussex at about 08:00, after the remains were spotted in the water. It was not known whether the person was swept into the water by the weather conditions.

Media caption,

Fire crews were called to fix scaffolding outside a building near Oxford Circus in central London

As the storm made landfall on mainland Europe, flights to the UK were affected.

Dutch carrier KLM cancelled a number of flights between Amsterdam Schiphol airport and London Heathrow.

Other flights between the Netherlands and Manchester, London City, Leeds Bradford and Southampton airports were delayed.

Overturned vehicles led to closures on the A1M, M6 and M5, where a recovery operation was under way to clear up the contents of a lorry left spilled on the road.

Several major bridges were closed due to high winds.

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In Buckinghamshire, "flying trampolines" ended up on lines near Aylesbury.