Major transport disruption as Germany hit by gale-force winds

Gale-force winds swept across large swathes of Germany on Thursday, downing trees, causing power outages and leading to cancelled flights and trains, reported dpa.

The German meteorological service DWD issued multiple severe weather warnings about the arrival of storm Ylenia late on Wednesday, saying later the dangerous conditions could last for a few days.

"Two gale-force low pressure systems will bring stormy conditions to Germany until Saturday, and sometimes severe storm conditions," DWD said in its forecast on Thursday morning.

Average winds of 120 kilometres per hour (km/h) were recorded in a half-hour period at the highest peak in northern Germany, the Brocken, in the Harz mountains in the early hours of Thursday. The fastest speed in that interval was 152km/h.

At Berlin's international airport BER, no passengers were allowed to embark or disembark from planes. Planes were still being allowed to land however, and those already loaded with passengers before the announcement were still being allowed to take off.

Lufthansa cancelled 20 flights as a precaution.

Rail operator Deutsche Bahn halted long-distance train services in several states in the northern part of the country due to the adverse weather conditions.

No long-distance trains are running in the states of Lower Saxony, Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Berlin and Brandenburg, the company said.

Fallen trees affected train travel in some areas, including between Bremen and Hamburg and in the Dortmund area.

On the northern coast, the marine travel authority BSH warned of storm surges, saying they could be 1 to 2 metres higher than usual on the eastern part of the coast.

In Bavaria in the south, at least 10,000 people were left without electricity for a period according to figures from the state's largest provider Bayernwerk Netz. In most cases, power was restored shortly afterwards, the firm said.

The emergency services in the capital said they were stretched beyond their capacity on Thursday morning, after a similar state of emergency was declared during the night when they had some 76 weather-related call-outs over a 3.5-hour period.

"Most of the incidents concern fallen trees or loose building materials," the fire service said. There were no reports of injuries so far, it said. Residents were warned not to leave their homes unless necessary and not to go into forests and parks.