Berlin, Oct 29 (AP) At least five people died and severalwere injured today as high winds knocked down trees, lefthomes without electricity and caused widespread travel chaosacross much of Central Europe.
Two people died in Poland as a result of the heavy winds,including a man who drove his car into a tree that had beenknocked down by the storm, fire department spokesman PawelFratczak said.
The second man was killed when a tree fell on his car insouthwestern Poland, while his passenger was hospitalized,Polish media reported.
Two people were killed in the Czech Republic when theywere hit by falling trees, local Television reported.
A 63-year-old camper drowned in the Jadebusen river inLower Saxony in Germany, when he was swept away in a flashflood, the German news agency dpa reported.
In Berlin, one man was severely injured by roof tilesfalling from a building, another one was injured when hit byscaffolding torn off a home and four more were injured instorm-related incidents across the country.
Storm Herwart, whose wind gusts reached 180 kph (112mph), caused blackouts in hundreds of thousands of homes inthe Czech Republic, Austria and other countries.
Train connections in several German northern states wereshut down, including links to and from Berlin, because of thedanger from branches on the tracks. Germany rail companyDeutsche Bahn opened stationary trains to travelers leftstranded by cancellations.
A Lufthansa flight from Houston to Frankfurt made anemergency landing in the southwestern German city of Stuttgartearly Sunday because of strong winds.
In the northern city of Hamburg, the Elbe river flooded aparking garage, the city's famous fish market and severalstreets. Firefighters had to rescue seven cows from the Elberiver in the Neugamme neighborhood of Hamburg.
The zoos in Prague, Berlin, and the eastern German cityof Rostock remained closed because of the danger of fallingtrees. (AP)UZM.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.