Two dead as rain storms lash Germany, spark rail chaos

Heavy summer storms in northern Germany killed two people and crippled railway services Thursday while a tornado was seen near Hamburg. Gale-force winds, torrential rains and hail damaged rail tracks and power lines, forcing trains to be halted between Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen, Kiel and Hanover, national railway company Deutsche Bahn said. A 50-year-old man died while his wife was injured when their parked car was hit by a falling tree near the city of Uelzen. A falling tree also seriously injured a female cyclist nearby. An 83-year-old woman meanwhile died at Gifhorn in the neighbouring state of Lower Saxony after her car hit a tree which had been blown across the street in strong gales, police said. In the port city of Hamburg, the weather service reported a rare tornado some 10 kilometres (six miles) from the airport. In the south of the city, storms damaged house roofs and killed sheep that were hit by toppled trees. Music fans had to seek shelter in their cars at the venue of a weekend musical festival near Bremen that, ironically, is named "Hurricane".