Storm and tornado in western Germany: one death and nearly 60 injured
Sylvie Claire / May 21, 2022
The storm that swept across Germany on Friday left at least one person dead, nearly 60 injured and caused extensive damage, mainly in the west of the country, local authorities said on Saturday.
In Rhineland-Palatinate, a 38-year-old man died after suffering an electric shock when he entered a flooded cellar due to bad weather, and fell on his head, said the police in Koblenz.
North Rhine-Westphalia was particularly hard hit: a tornado passed through Paderborn injuring 43 people, 10 of them seriously, the police of this city of some 150,000 inhabitants said on Saturday.
Thirty of them were treated in hospital, a woman is in danger of death, she detailed. The police have evaluated at several million euros the devastation caused by the tornado.
This rare and localized phenomenon would have also hit the town of Lippstadt, about 30 kilometers away, according to a spokesman for the fire department, but without causing any injuries.
The bad weather, which came after several days of unseasonably high temperatures in the country, caused extensive damage in this region of western Germany, with police reporting countless uprooted trees, torn roofs and devastated stores. Rail and road traffic remained disrupted Saturday morning.
In the south, in the Roth region, a wooden hut where hikers had taken refuge collapsed. Fourteen people were injured, including a woman and a child seriously, said the local Bavarian police.
The German weather service lifted most storm warnings on Saturday, but warned of the risk of isolated severe thunderstorms in Bavaria and strong wind gusts in the east.
The violence of the storm on Friday is linked to the arrival in Germany of particularly warm air from Spain and France, on the one hand, and cold air from the north on the other hand, explained the meteorologist Özden Terli.
Related Posts
Death toll rises to 165 in Germany due to bad weather
Steph Deschamps / July 19, 2021
Devastating floods in western Germany have claimed at least 165 lives, according ...
Read More
Experiment in Germany: volunteers will receive 1200€ per month to see what effect it has on them
Eva Deschamps / June 1, 2021
Receiving 1,200 euros per month, unconditionally, for three years: 122 people, drawn f...
Read More
Dismantling of a vast Internet child pornography network with more than 400,000 members in Germany: One of the largest in the world
Steph Deschamps / May 3, 2021
The dismantling of the BOYSTOWN platform, which had existed since 2019, took place in ...
Read More