Several deaths in the Ciaran storm

Strong winds and heavy rain are still sweeping parts of Western Europe.

During Friday, the storm mainly affected parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Italy.

Among the victims were three people who drowned off the coast of Portugal when a sailboat capsized. The boat is registered in Denmark, but it is not yet clear whether the three dead were Danes.

Five people have died in Tuscany, Italy, as torrential rains flooded hospitals and homes. In addition to the dead, at least three people were reported missing in the area.

According to Governor Eugenio Gianni, one of the dead was an 85-year-old woman who was found drowned on the floor of her home in Florence.

“What happened in Tuscany has a name: climate change,” he writes on X.

On Thursday, at least seven people died when Hurricane Ciara hit Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. Three people died in the same park in Ghent, Belgium, as tree branches fell on them.

Thousands of trees fell, causing most of the deaths, but also cutting power to more than a million households and closing roads in large areas.

Hurricane-force winds of up to 56 meters per second also caused travel chaos with ports closed and air and rail traffic disrupted.