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Northern Germany hit by severe winds and storms

DPA/The Local
DPA/The Local - [email protected]
Northern Germany hit by severe winds and storms
A fallen tree on parked cars in Hamburg. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Jonas Walzberg

Severe winds wreaked havoc across the north of Germany during the night and one man died after a tree fell onto his car.

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Emergency services were called out several times during the stormy weather on Wednesday night, and the early hours of Thursday. 

On the B4 near Wesendorf in Lower Saxony, an uprooted tree crashed into a 63-year-old man's car on Wednesday evening.

The man died at the scene of the accident. His 35-year-old son, who was also in the car, suffered minor injuries.

The storm caused almost 40 incidents in the state, particularly in and around Oldenburg. There was also a lot of property damage.

Elsewhere, Hamburg fire and rescue teams said they recorded 36 storm incidents by early evening, ranging from fallen branches to flying objects and toppled scaffolding.

They said no-one was reported to be injured. There was some flooding, including at Hamburg Fish Market, but no major incidents. 

READ ALSO: Germany sees heavy snowfall as winter blizzard strikes

In Schleswig-Holstein, gale-force winds caused trees to fall on roads fences to fall, a spokesperson said early Thursday morning. There were no injuries.

In the south of the state alone, emergency services had to be called out almost 180 times, the spokesperson for the control centre said. On the A1 between Bad Oldesloe (Stormarn district) and the Bargteheide motorway junction, vehicles had to be recovered on Thursday morning after a lorry accident. Due to the strong winds, it was not possible on Wednesday evening. 

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Similar incidents also took place in Brandenburg. Storm gusts overnight led to several fire and police operations in the state that surrounds Berlin.

According to a spokesperson for the call centre in Potsdam, an articulated lorry and two cars crashed into a tree lying on the road on the A24. No one was injured.

Covid-19 test tents were also damaged by the wind.

Vocabulary

Accident - (der) Unfall

Heavy gusts/winds - (die) Schwere Sturmböen

Overturned/uprooted trees - (die) umgestürzte Bäume

Police operation - (der) Polizeieinsatz

We’re aiming to help our readers improve their German by translating vocabulary from some of our news stories. Did you find this article useful? Let us know.

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