Deadly storms lash Spain, Portugal and France

The French village of Ver-sur-Mer feels the force of the gales

At least 16 people have been killed in storms that have lashed parts of Spain, Portugal and France.

Winds of up to 140km/h (87mph) caused chaos as they moved from Portugal up through the Bay of Biscay.

Twelve people have died in France and three in Spain as well as a 10-year-old boy in Portugal.

The storm is expected to track north-eastwards during the course of Sunday, reaching Denmark by the evening, French meteorological authorities said.

Falling trees

The storm system, which has been called Xynthia, has put five of the 95 French departments on red alert - only the second such warning since the new emergency system was introduced in 2001.

Hundreds of thousands of homes in west and south-west France have lost electricity while a number of French coastal villages were flooded.

Some people had taken to their roofs in the Vendee region, one policeman told the Agence France-Presse news agency by telephone.

Police helicopters were in action attempting to locate and rescue people marooned on their roofs.

Most of the French fatalities were caused by drowning, but some were killed by flying debris, according to AFP.

A tree claimed the lives of two Spanish men when their vehicle was hit and a Spanish woman aged 82 was killed by a falling wall in Galicia.

The Portuguese boy was also killed by a tree.

Rail services were severely affected in northern Spain, and a major road crossing between France and Spain was closed to heavy goods vehicles.

Air France said that 70 of its flights were cancelled from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

According to a report on Europe 1 radio, wind speeds hit 175km/h at the top of the Eiffel Tower in the French capital.

Spain's Canary Islands, particularly La Palma, Gran Canaria and Tenerife, were hit by the storm, although there was no great damage.