Vienna, Aug 19, (dpa/GNA) – Rail links in Austria were disrupted on Friday, a day after deadly storms raged through Europe, causing widespread damage.
Train connections were not yet running as normal in the Austrian provinces of Carinthia and Styria, after winds of up to 139 kilometres per hour blew down electricity pylons.
That interrupted power supplies to hundreds of thousands of households, alongside rail transport.
Trains from Vienna to Venice had to be diverted via Salzburg, while regional connections were also halted, the Austrian Federal Railways said.
However, the southern A2 motorway was passable again on Friday, after being closed due to fallen trees and power failures in tunnels, according to motorway operator Asfinag.
On Thursday, two children were killed and about a dozen other people were injured, some seriously, when trees fell at a Carinthian lake in St Andrä.
“It hit us all completely unexpectedly,” a witness told Kleine Zeitung newspaper. Lakeside bathers were blown over by the hurricane-like storm.
Police said three women were killed by a tree while hiking in Gaming in the province of Lower Austria.
GNA