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Rescue vehicles are next to fallen trees at the accident site on Lake St. Andrä
Photo: Georg Bachhiesl / dpa
Five people died in Austria due to severe storms.
According to the police and the Red Cross, several trees fell at a small bathing lake in St. Andrä in the state of Carinthia.
Two girls aged four and eight died and eleven people were injured, some seriously.
Further north, three other people were killed by a tree in Gaming, Lower Austria.
According to the state meteorological service ZAMG, storm speeds of up to 139 km/h were measured on Thursday.
In Styria, Carinthia and East Tyrol, the trains were temporarily at a standstill after the power supply for rail traffic failed due to the storm, as announced by the Austrian Federal Railways.
Due to the gusts of wind, dozens of trees near Griffen fell on the southern autobahn (A2) in Carinthia.
There were also power outages in tunnels.
The important transport link to Italy was closed in several places for clean-up and repair work.
In Styria, tens of thousands of households were cut off from the power supply because high-voltage lines and 2,000 transformer stations were damaged.
"In many cases, our colleagues have to cut their way to the repair work with a chainsaw," said a spokesman for Energie Steiermark to the ORF broadcaster.
It could take days, if not weeks, to fix all the damage.
Storms and thunderstorms with deaths also in France and Italy
After weeks of drought and severe forest fires, large parts of Europe are increasingly being hit by dangerous storms and thunderstorms.
According to authorities, at least five people were killed in thunderstorms on the French holiday island of Corsica, and around 20 others were injured.
A 13-year-old died in Corsica when a tree fell on her bungalow at Le Sagone campsite in the west of the island.
A 72-year-old woman was killed when the blown-off roof of a shack fell on her vehicle, authorities said.
A 46-year-old French tourist died in Calvi when a tree fell on a bungalow.
A fisherman and a kayaker died in the sea off Corsica.
Two people died in a storm in the Italian region of Tuscany.
According to local media, they died in the cities of Lucca and Carrara from falling trees.
According to regional authorities, around a hundred other people had to be brought to safety from the storms.
kko/dpa/AFP
