Air traffic will be halted on Monday evening at Paris's three airports following warnings a strong storm is heading towards the area, the French civil aviation authority said.

All flights in the area will be cancelled from 8:00 p.m. on Monday until 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday (1900-0900 GMT), it said in a statement.

The French weather office has warned much of northern France will be battered overnight by gales in excess of 100 kmh (60 mph), with some gusts expected to reach 140 kmh (87 mph).

Air France said it has cancelled 210 flights in and out of Paris's Roissy and Orly airports on Monday and asked passengers not to turn up to the terminal buildings.

The airline has also reserved 1,400 hotel rooms at Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport for transfer passengers already blocked there.

It was not immediately clear how many flights would be cancelled in total during the expected storm.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.