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Super storm leaves 40,000 without power

TT/The Local
TT/The Local - [email protected]
Super storm leaves 40,000 without power
A family in Malmö's Västra Hamnen district braves the winds. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

The powerful storm which clobbered much of Sweden on Saturday night had left more than 40,000 without power by midday on Sunday, caused several injuries and disrupted road, rail and air traffic across the country.

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The storm, dubbed Egon, raged across the country for more than fifteen hours, reaching hurricane strength of 32.6 metres per second in several places on the country's west coast around Gothenburg. 

“It looks like the winds will subside over the course of the afternoon, and then we will start to downgrade warnings," Lisa Frost, a meteorologist at the national weather institute SMHI told TT on Sunday. 

Class two storm warnings remain in place on the islands of Öland and Gotland.

In Gothenburg, one person was hospitalised after the heavy winds overturned his car. Another came home on Saturday to find a neighbouring car had been physically lifted up by the winds and thrown into his house. A third was sheltering in her house when a gigantic pine crashed down onto the roof. 

Stockholm police reported 16 accidents taking place as a result of the storm. The coast around Malmö was less severely hit, but the authorities nonetheless decided to close the Öresund Bridge to Copenhagen on Saturday night,  reopening it on Sunday morning. 

About 55 people were evacuated from their homes in Denmark after Egon and Dagmar, the storm which preceded it, pushed sea levels in parts of the country to the highest levels ever recorded. 

In Norway’s second city, Bergen, the sceptre of the Rosenkrantz Tower was snapped off by the wind and collapsed onto the wall of the Bergenshus fortress. 

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