A man was killed in southwest England after a tree fell on a caravan during record winds triggered by Storm Goretti, as large parts of Europe continued to grapple with power outages and transport disruptions caused by severe winter weather.
The victim, believed to be in his 50s, was found dead in the town of Helston in Cornwall on Friday, police said.
“Tragically, a man aged in his 50s was located deceased within the caravan,” Devon and Cornwall Police said in a statement quoted by AFP.
Storm Goretti swept through southwestern Cornwall and parts of Wales overnight from Thursday into Friday, with wind gusts reaching up to 160 kmph, according to UK authorities. The intense winds uprooted trees and damaged power infrastructure, leaving tens of thousands of homes without electricity.
The UK Met Office said most of the country remained under weather warnings for snow and ice on Saturday, cautioning that black ice could cause further disruption in Scotland and northern England. Heavy snowfall earlier in the week forced the closure of around 250 schools across Scotland during much of the first week after the Christmas break.
About 28,000 homes were still without power across southwestern England and the Midlands at the start of the weekend, according to National Grid.
The storm system also affected northern Europe. In France, nearly 100,000 homes were without electricity on Saturday morning, officials said.
In Germany, long-distance rail services began to resume on Saturday after being fully suspended a day earlier due to another storm, Elli, rail operator Deutsche Bahn said. However, disruptions continued in the northern port city of Hamburg, where heavy snowfall worsened the situation. Several routes, including those connecting Hamburg to Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Hanover, remained suspended, while services to Berlin and the Ruhr region were expected to be gradually restored.
Across Europe, at least 15 people have died in weather-related incidents this week, as storms, strong winds and freezing temperatures disrupted travel, shut schools and cut power to hundreds of thousands.
