Mega hailstorm causes mayhem and injures many in Germany

Residents described seeing large hailstones

At least nine people have been injured and dozens of homes damaged in a hailstorm in southern Germany.

 

There were reports of hailstones the size of golf balls in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

 

Winds of up to 120 km/h (75mph) were reported on Wednesday night and residents near the Bavarian city of Augsburg spoke of seeing a tornado.

 

Roofs were badly damaged, blocks of flats had to be evacuated and a local school had to be closed on Thursday.

Two people were hurt by lightning in the state of Baden Wuerttemberg

Two people were taken to hospital with severe injuries caused by lightning strikes.

 

Seven more were hurt in Bavaria, where several houses in villages near Augsburg were no longer habitable. Authorities appealed for help from construction workers to repair the damage.

 

“First it rained, then very briefly hail, then there was a whoosh and everything flew through the whole area!,” one resident told Bavarian media.

 

German weather officials did not confirm claims of a tornado.

 

One person was killed last week in northern Germany when a tornado swept through the town of Buetzow, near Rostock.

Courtesy of BBC News

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Two trains collide injuring 35 passengers with some very serious in Southern Germany

Thirty-five people were injured, four of them seriously, when a passenger train collided with a freight train late Friday near Mannheim station in southern Germany, the operator Deutsche Bahn said

The accident happened around 9:00 pm (1900 GMT|) and led to the derailment of five carriages of the passenger train, which was taking some 250 people between Graz in Austria and the German city of Saarbrueken near the French border.

Deutsche Bahn said 14 of the 35 people injured had been hospitalised, including four in serious condition.

Earlier in the evening the rail company said that the evacuation of the train had been completed but that Mannheim station remained closed.

The goods train involved in the crash belonged to the ERS Railways group and was travelling to Hungary.

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