A storm is sweeping across Germany on Monday. Several people are injured by falling trees. Long-distance rail traffic is slowed down.
Frankfurt/Bottrop - A storm slowed down long-distance rail traffic on Monday evening, covered roofs, and damaged cars as well as power and telephone lines. Several people were hit and injured by falling trees. The storm, with some strong squalls, hit several federal states in the afternoon and evening. There was a lot to do for numerous fire and police forces - especially in western Germany. Train passengers sometimes had to endure delays of four hours - and had to hope all evening that their temporarily stopped trains would continue at all.
In Bottrop (North Rhine-Westphalia), a 19-year-old pedestrian was injured on her way home from work when a tree suddenly fell onto the sidewalk and hit the passer-by. The young woman's legs were trapped under the tree trunk, the fire department said. Since serious injuries could not be ruled out, a rescue helicopter was requested. In Hattingen in the Ruhr area, a man was injured in a garden by a falling tree.
In Cologne, a Kölner Verkehrs-betriebe (KVB) bus was damaged by a fallen tree. The fire department said in the evening that the driver was taken to the hospital with minor injuries. Several fallen trees and broken branches hindered traffic in the cathedral city in the evening.
Deutsche Bahn announced on Monday evening: “Individual routes are closed and there are diversions with delays.” Those affected by the disruption include Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony. Passengers were still waiting on some ICE trains shortly before midnight, even though they wanted to be at their destination long ago.
A dpa reporter reported that, according to a train attendant, no more trains were running at Frankfurt Central Station. A look at the arrival board for the train station around midnight revealed some immense delays: ICE trains from Hamburg were supposed to arrive between 200 and 290 minutes later than planned, a train from Vienna 45 minutes later, an ICE from Berlin 25 minutes later. The dpa reporter was traveling on the ICE 1171 Lüneburg-Basel, which was stuck in Hanau for around four hours.
In Bavaria, three people in a car suffered serious injuries when an accident occurred due to aquaplaning on the A9 on Monday evening. The car with four occupants overturned in the direction of Munich, the police said. The driver lost control of the car on wet roads. It crashed into the guard rail and then rolled over. The three injured people, all in their 20s, were taken to hospital.
In Ludwigshafen in the Palatinate, the storm sent a clothes horse flying: according to their own descriptions, the fire department discovered it in a tree 25 meters above the ground. There were around 360 emergency calls and 80 missions in the city as a result of the storm. Among other things, trees fell onto streets and power lines. Loose roof tiles and fallen construction fences also triggered fire brigade operations.
In the Rhine-Neckar area, the police and fire brigade were deployed on a variety of operations. In Hesse, the fire brigades had dozens of operations due to squalls. In Rhineland-Palatinate, the Koblenz police headquarters reported ten cars in its region that had been damaged by falling trees or other objects. Power and telephone lines were also damaged by falling trees. “The interruptions were only short-lived,” said Koblenz.
The German Weather Service (DWD) warned on Monday evening of locally strong thunderstorms, sometimes severe squalls and widespread storms and gusts of wind. From midnight there will be continuous rain locally; in the south, light snowfall is expected above 1000 meters. According to the information, it could become slippery above 800 meters on Tuesday morning. dpa