A powerful winter storm swept through northwest Europe on Saturday, causing widespread travel chaos and resulting in at least one death.
Hampshire police in southern England said a man died after a tree fell on a car on a main road near Winchester, while authorities in West Yorkshire said they were investigating a possible link between a second road crash death and the storm.
However, the road was not icy at the time.
In Ireland, Storm Bert left more than 60,000 properties without power and also disrupted ferry and train services on the Irish Sea.
Major transport hubs in Britain experienced major delays, with major impacts on airports and Channel ports.
Meanwhile, in France, tens of thousands were left without power after storm Caetano earlier in the week, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded as train services were halted due to power cuts.
Media footage showed flooding in the west of Ireland, which also caused train closures in Northern Ireland. Snow has affected travel across Britain.
The heaviest snow hit Scotland and parts of northern and central England, with dozens of flood warnings issued.
The UK Met Office has issued snow and ice warnings for these areas, saying there is a “good chance some rural communities will be cut off”.
The hills of Scotland could see up to 40cm of snow, while winds approaching 113km/h were recorded in Britain.
Ferry company DFDS has canceled services on some routes until Monday, with services from Newhaven and Dover in southern England to Dieppe and Calais in France severely affected.
Flights were disrupted at Newcastle Airport due to heavy snow, with some flights diverted to Belfast and Edinburgh.
Blackouts cover northwestern Europe
In Britain, National Grid said power had been restored to “many homes and businesses”, but more than 4,000 properties across the country were still without power on Saturday – the majority in south-west England.
Some 47,000 homes remained without power in northern France on Saturday, two days after the country was hit by storm Caetano, electricity company Enedis said.
Up to 270,000 people were cut off by the storm, but Enedis said it had 2,000 technicians working to reconnect power lines brought down by winds of up to 130 km/h.
Several hundred passengers were stranded on two trains in western France that were halted by power cuts.
About 200 people on a train going from Hendaye to Bordeaux and 400 on a high-speed TGV going from Hendaye to Paris spent up to nine hours in the carriages.
Junior Transport Minister François Durobray told RTL radio that up to 1,000 passengers on different trains were affected by the power outage.
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