According to provisional figures, 10 people were killed in storm Ciaran in Europe, most of them as a result of falling trees or branches.
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A 5-year-old child and a 64-year-old woman in parks in Ghent, Belgium; a 23-year-old woman crushed by a tree at a crosswalk in central Madrid; a 46-year-old woman hiking in the Harz mountains in central Germany; and another victim in the Netherlands, at Venray, in the province of Limburg.
In France, a 55-year-old truck driver was killed by a tree that fell on the cab of his truck on the RN 31 near Soisson, northern France, and a 70-year-old man was found dead in Le Havre, in Normandy, after a 5-meter fall caused by a strong gust of wind while he was closing a shutter. At least 16 other people were injured, including seven firefighters.
Five people have died, Eugenio Giani, president of the Tuscany region, wrote in a Facebook post this morning as Italy continues to grapple with the impact of storm Ciarán.
Among the dead was an 85-year-old man who was found on the ground floor of his home in the town of Prato, north of Florence.
An 84-year-old woman died while trying to keep water out of her home in the same municipality of Montemurlo. The other fatality was reported in Rosignano, south of Livorno.
Falling tree branches also hit three German tourists in the central Ghent Citadel Park, killing a 64-year-old woman.
In northern Germany, a 46-year-old woman was fatally injured by a falling tree in the Harz mountains.
Dutch media reported that several people had been hit by falling trees in the Netherlands. One person was killed in the southern town of Venray.
On Thursday, violent winds and rain disrupted air, sea and rail traffic in several European airports, causing flight cancellations in Spain and the Netherlands, closing several terminals at the port of Rotterdam and slowing down trains throughout Belgium.
In France, storm Ciaran affected signal towers and cut mobile communication for at least a million subscribers.
Meanwhile, it damaged power supply networks in the United Kingdom and France, leaving thousands of homes without power.
As of 6 p.m. Thursday, more than 684,000 households in France's Brittany and Normandy were still waiting for power supplies to resume.
In the UK, across Devon and Cornwall, Sussex, Surrey and the Channel Islands, power supplies were affected by strong winds and heavy rains, UK Power Networks said.
More than 300 schools in southern England have been closed amid warnings that the storm could be life-threatening. Some schools will remain shut on Friday.
About 40 people in Jersey were evacuated after their homes were damaged, as wind speeds have hit highs of 104 mph (about 167 kph) on the island. ■