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Storm »Ignatz« disrupted rail traffic: Long-distance traffic in Cologne was temporarily suspended, the picture shows the main train station
Photo: Henning Kaiser / dpa
"Ignatz" is there.
The first violent autumn storm of the year has been sweeping through Germany since last night - and causes damage.
Trees fell in many places, rail traffic is impaired and warnings are issued on the North Sea of a storm surge.
Deutsche Bahn stopped regional traffic in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.
There are no longer any DB Regio trains running there "until further notice," a spokesman said.
Long-distance traffic in North Rhine-Westphalia was idle for hours.
As the Deutsche Bahn announced at noon, train traffic will resume on the first routes.
However, there are still failures and delays in large parts of Germany.
How long the disabilities will last cannot be foreseen yet.
The clean-up work on the Düsseldorf and Cologne route continued, and the ICE route to Wuppertal was not yet passable, said a spokesman.
The storm had blown branches and trees onto rails or overhead lines since the night.
The Saarland, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria are also particularly affected.
There are train cancellations and delays.
"Hundreds of employees are working to clear trees and other obstacles from the tracks, to repair overhead lines and to record damage," said a spokeswoman.
Passengers who want to postpone their trip due to the storm can redeem their booked ticket immediately up to and including seven days after the disruption has ended.
In Bavaria trees crashed on railroad tracks.
Especially on the ICE route between Würzburg and Nuremberg there are problems, it said from the railway.
Fear of storm surge
The Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency warned of a storm surge in the North Sea and in the Weser and Elbe regions.
The afternoon and evening floods on Thursday on the North Sea coast will be up to 1.50 meters higher than the mean flood.
In the Weser and Elbe areas it will occur about 1.50 meters above the mean flood, it said.
Further storm surges on Friday cannot be ruled out.
The apex in Hamburg-St.-Pauli should be reached shortly after 6 p.m. on Thursday.
A tornado caused severe damage in Kiel on Thursday morning.
Fire department chief Kai Lässig reported that he had seen the trunk of the cyclone himself.
The storm left a "path of devastation" about 100 meters wide in the village.
Several houses were badly damaged.
Trees fell and cars were buried under them.
According to his information, there were no injuries.
Ship caught by gust
On the Moselle near Koblenz, a passenger ship was pressed against a bridge pillar by a strong gust and damaged.
The bridge was also affected, the police said.
The ship was able to continue, however, nothing was reported of injuries.
There were also some disabilities on the streets.
At Speyer in Rhineland-Palatinate, the Rhine bridge on Autobahn 61 was closed in the morning because of trucks standing across, according to the police.
According to the police, a gust had allegedly hit a truck trailer and overturned.
As a result, several trucks stood across.
According to the fire and rescue services, trees were uprooted and toppled in many places.
In Hamburg a tree fell on a car and a four-story family house, nobody was injured.
In Berlin, the fire brigade declared a state of emergency, several people are said to be trapped in cars under trees.
There was also property damage elsewhere.
The fire brigade in Dortmund reported that a falling tree had damaged five parked cars.
In total, there were almost 50 storm-related missions in the city in the morning.
In Saarland and Hesse, roads were closed because of fallen trees.
Osnabrück Zoo closed
The zoo in Osnabrück decided that the gates would remain closed on Thursday.
In view of the announced squalls, the zoo does not want to endanger the health of visitors and animals.
The animals should stay in the stables if possible.
The German Weather Service (DWD) tightened its storm warnings during the night for a wide strip in the middle of the country, over which the center of the storm depression passed.
From Saarland via Rhineland-Palatinate and parts of Hesse, Northern Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg to Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, there is a storm warning due to gale-force gusts.
There are also warnings for high altitudes in low mountain ranges such as the Ore Mountains.
In the rest of the country, according to the meteorologists, storms of up to 80 kilometers per hour were also to be expected, in the northern half partly also in connection with thunderstorms and local hurricane gusts.
In theory, "short-lived tornadoes" are also possible, explained the DWD.
A comprehensive underweather warning did not exist, however.
The storm should gradually subside from the west on Thursday afternoon.
Note: In an earlier report, citing the dpa news agency, it said that train traffic in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia had been discontinued. The dpa has now corrected its information: Only regional traffic is affected.
ptz / AFP / dpa
