The storm that swept through Germany on Friday left at least one dead, nearly 60 injured and considerable damage mainly in the west of the country, according to a report on Saturday from local authorities.
In Rhineland-Palatinate, a 38-year-old man died after suffering an electric shock when entering a flooded cellar due to bad weather, and falling on his head, Koblenz police said.
North Rhine-Westphalia was particularly affected: a tornado crossed Paderborn causing 43 injuries, including ten seriously, said Saturday the police of this city of some 150,000 inhabitants.
Thirty of them were treated in hospital, a woman is “in danger of death”, she detailed.
The police assessed the “damage” caused by the tornado at “several million” euros.
This rare and localized phenomenon would also have hit the town of Lippstadt, about thirty kilometers away, according to a spokesperson for the fire brigade, but without causing any injuries.
The bad weather, which came after several days of abnormally high temperatures for the country’s season, caused extensive damage in this region of western Germany, with law enforcement reporting countless uprooted trees, roofs torn off, devastated shops.
Rail and road traffic remained disrupted on Saturday morning.
In the south, in the Roth region, a wooden hut where hikers had taken refuge collapsed. Fourteen people were seriously injured, including a woman and a child, local Bavarian police said.
The German meteorological services on Saturday lifted most storm warnings, warning however of the risk of isolated severe thunderstorms in Bavaria and strong gusts in the east.
The violence of the storm on Friday is linked to the arrival in Germany of particularly hot air from Spain and France, on the one hand, and cold air from the north on the other, the meteorologist explained. Özden Terli on ZDF public television, speaking of an “explosive mix”.
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