Storm lashes northern Europe leaving at least 13 dead

A storm battering north-western Europe has killed at least 13 people - six of them in Germany.

Two people died when their car was crushed by a falling tree in Gelsenkirchen, in western Germany. Two children in the car were injured.

In Brittany, western France, a woman was swept out to sea. And in the Dutch city of Amsterdam a tree felled by the wind crushed a woman by a canal.

Record gusts of 191 km/h (119mph) were measured over the North Sea.

Many trains were cancelled in and around London and in north-western Germany.

At least 50 flights were cancelled at Schiphol airport in the Netherlands, and the German media reported severe delays at airports in Hamburg and Dusseldorf.

In Germany, a fisherman and a sailor were killed in separate accidents at sea.

Including the Gelsenkirchen incident, four people were killed in north-western Germany when trees fell onto cars, DPA reported.

Power cuts hit 42,000 homes in northern France, and at Belle-Ile in Brittany a woman was swept into the sea from a cliff.

The storm whipped across Brittany and Normandy early on Monday, felling trees and knocking out power lines in some places.

In the UK as many as 600,000 homes suffered power cuts, though many were later reconnected.

A woman was crushed to death in Amsterdam

On another Amsterdam canal a tree crashed onto a houseboat, sinking it

Dutch resort of Scheveningen: In many places police advised people to stay indoors

Hove, UK: There was damage across southern England from toppled trees

The storm put several power lines out of action in northern France

Two people died in west London after a felled tree caused a suspected gas explosion and house collapse

Port of Boulogne, France: Channel ferry crossings were disrupted early on Monday

In Kent in southeast England, a 17-year-old girl was crushed when a tree fell on the caravans her family was living in while renovation work was taking place at their home.

A man and a woman died when they were trapped under rubble after an uprooted tree caused a gas explosion in Hounslow in west London.

Scandinavian warnings

Earlier, two P&O ferries that had been held in the English Channel because of the storm made it to port.

The storm system deepened as it crossed the North Sea, according to the BBC Weather Centre.

German meteorologists measured record wind speeds of 191 km/h (119mph) over the North Sea.

In Brussels, a big banner on the European Commission building - the Berlaymont - was shredded by the wind.

German authorities halted all local trains in Schleswig-Holstein, as well as the Hanover-Bremen service and north-bound trains from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Along Germany's North Sea coast many ferries were confined to port and shipping on the Elbe was also disrupted, ARD reported.

Emergency services in Denmark and Sweden have issued storm warnings, as Scandinavia faces winds gusting at about 162km/h (100mph).