Western Europe hit by record winds of Storm Ciaran

After battering northern France with record winds of 200 kilometres per hour that killed a lorry driver, Storm Ciaran headed north on Thursday with Britain on high alert amid warnings of flooding, blackouts and major travel disruptions.

Some 1.2 million French homes lost electricity overnight as the storm lashed the northwest coast, ripping trees out of the ground. In southern England, hundreds of schools were closed as large waves powered by winds of 135 km/hour crashed along the coastline.

On the Channel Island of Jersey, residents had to be evacuated to hotels overnight as gusts of up to 164 km/hour damaged homes. The Netherlands also warned of powerful gusts of up to 100 km/h, with workers told to avoid commuting and more than 200 flights marked as cancelled at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, a major European hub. Rail and ferry services, including the Eurostar that links the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany and the UK, saw cancellations and delays.