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Fireman dies in Austria on flooding call out

The Local Austria
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Fireman dies in Austria on flooding call out
Photo: ORF screengrab

A fireman has died in Austria while out on an emergency call battling the fallout from severe storms in the Tyrol region over the weekend.

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The 60-year-old firefighter died from a heart attack as he and his colleagues were called out to a flooding emergency in a cellar in Aurach near Kitzbühel on Saturday.

As he got out of the vehicle, the fireman suddenly collapsed from a heart attack and, although colleagues attempted to reanimate him, they were unsuccessful and he died at the scene.

“The emergency doctor was immediately on the scene, but the man could not be saved,” a police spokesman said, quoted in Tiroler Tageszeitung.

Fire service commander Karl Meusburger and colleague of the fireman - who had been close to retirement - described his death to the ORF as “very tragic for the fire service”.

The region was hit by severe storms over the weekend, including golf ball-sized hailstones, flooding and strong rain and winds.

A 72-year-old Norwegian woman hiking near Kitzbühel had to be rescued and flown to hospital after she received head injuries from heavy hailstone.

Many vehicles in the Kitzbühel area were also severely damaged and a grocery store in the  shop in the centre was completely flooded.

Three dead in Germany 

A fireman and two others were killed in severe weather in Germany on Sunday, which was also hit by flash floods, hail storms and lightning storms.

In Schwäbisch Gmünd in Baden-Württemberg a firefighter died on Sunday while trying to dig a stranded person out of trouble. The person he was trying to save is also likely dead, authorities said on Sunday evening.

In Heilbronn, meanwhile, police also confirmed that one person died after being trapped in an underground garage during flooding.

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