Tornado rips through northern German town

A violent tornado has caused extensive damage in the northern German town of Buetzow. Tiles were torn off rooftops with a matter of minutes, when the tornado struck on Tuesday. Hundreds of trees were ripped up and dozens of cars overturned.

High winds and lightning brought the bus and rail services to a standstill. Five container ships broke loose from their moorings and collided.

One person was killed in Hamburg by falling debris. At least 30 others were injured.

Bremen recorded a wind gust of 101kph, with wind gusts in Broken touching 108kph. The highest gust recorded was in Geilenkirchen, not far from the Dutch and Belgian borders, where speeds reached 119kph.

The huge storms associated with the tornado followed a spell of unusually warm weather. Hamburg saw the temperature go from 12C on Saturday up to 24C by Tuesday. The average is nearer 16C.

There was some heavy rain around too. Laage, which is around 23km to the southeast of Rostock, recorded 84mm of rain on Tuesday afternoon.

Emergency services are still assessing the extent of the damage. More rain, thunder and lightning are expected on Thursday, but the main storm risk is now moving towards Eastern Europe.