Sawt Falasteen - Storms batter Europe hitting power supplies, flights and phones

Winds of up to 84 miles (135 kilometres) an hour were recorded in Argyll and Bute in western Scotland and fallen trees and power cables blocked roads and rail lines across the country.

More than 82,000 homes in Britain, nearly 60,000 in France and at least 10,000 in Germany had power cuts inflicted by the passage of storms Boelo and Austen within 24 hours of each other, authorities in the countries said.

Britain's Energy Networks Association indicated that more than 400,000 homes had lost power at some stage during the storms. Part of the pier at Brighton the southern England coast, unused since a fire in 2003, blew away in Storm Austen on Friday.

The powerful winds also battered northern France across the Channel as Europe battled its first big autumn storms of the year and experts warned of more extreme weather events because of global warming.

French energy company Enedis said that at the peak of storm Austen on Saturday, some 288,000 homes had no electricity.

Some 59,000 remained without power at midday Sunday, mainly in Normandy and Brittany. It said 2,600 Enedis technicians and contractors were working to re-establish power.

In Germany, Austen cut power to 10,000 homes in and around the southwestern town of Friburg-Brisgau on Sunday. The town's main hospital said it had to limit service to emergency cases because of the blackout that also cut the mobile phone network.

Two people were seriously hurt Saturday by scaffolding blown away by storm Austen's winds during an autumn market at the town of Nastatten, German police said.

Germany's DWD weather agency predicted more powerful winds of up to 100 kph (60 mph) on the northern coast on Sunday.

The storms also hit the Netherlands and Belgium, where falling trees injured four people in Brussels on Saturday.

Hundreds of flights were cancelled or diverted because of the storms across northern Europe.

Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, one of Europe's busiest hubs, cancelled dozens of flights Sunday. AFP counted some 90 flights cancelled on the airport website, mainly to European cities including Paris, Rome and Dublin. Dozens of flights due to land at the airport were also cancelled.

Flights in northern England and Scotland were also hit by the storms.

W.Mansour--SF-PST