Four children aged from nine to 12 years were killed yesterday when a sports centre collapsed near Barcelona in strong winds which battered parts of northern Spain and France. At least nine adults died in separate incidents in Spain and France as gales buffeted the region for a second day, cutting power, disrupting flights and blocking roads.
In the sports centre disaster, winds of more than 100 km per hour, ripped the roof off a building next to a baseball court in Sant Boi, causing the breeze block walls to collapse inwards.
"It was horrific," Jose Antonio Godina, a parent, was quoted by El Mundo newspaper as saying.
"We heard a loud noise and we thought a tree had fallen on a roof. But when we got here, the roof of the annexe had literally flown off and the walls had fallen in on them."
Around 20 people, mostly children were inside the building, authorities said. Four children, members of a junior baseball team, died. Eight more were injured, including six children.
A policeman was killed by a falling tree in Galicia, northern Spain yesterday, a police spokesman said, while a 52-year-old woman was killed as a wall collapsed on her as she walked down a street in Barcelona on Friday. A 51-year-old man was killed by a falling wall in Alicante, authorities said, while two more adults were killed by falling trees in Catalonia yesterday. A Portuguese captain died after being rescued from a ship in high seas off the coast of Galicia.
In France, gales cut power supplies to around 1.7 million homes and closed roads, railways and airports.
Local authorities in the Landes region said a 50-year-old man was killed and one seriously injured when a tree fell on a car. The body of a third victim, a man, was found crushed by a tree, authorities said.
Also in the Landes area, a 78-year-old man was killed in his garden when he was hit by a flying piece of debris, police said.
French Agriculture Minister Michel Barnier said the storm was "the worst since 1999" and said France would call on the EU to help fund reconstruction efforts once the extent of the damage becomes clear.
President Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters he would travel to the affected area today.
Winds of up to 173 km an hour on the coast and 160 km an hour inland paralysed southwest France. The French weather agency Meteo France placed the region under red alert and asked residents to stay indoors for their own safety.
Tens of thousands in Spain were left without power and gales disrupted flights and rail travel. Waves of more than 20 metres were registered off the northern coast and high winds stranded dolphins on beaches in the region.
French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said she had ordered 700 extra security forces to be sent to help with rescue efforts and that extra equipment also be sent to help clear roads and electric lines.
The airports at Bordeaux, Biarritz and Pau were closed, officials said.
The national power grid manager, Electricite Reseau Distribution France (EDF), said the storm was continuing to damage the grid as it moved eastwards. ERDF president Michel Francony warned it could take a very long time to restore power.
The French state railway company SNCF said it had been forced to halt services completely in the Aquitaine and Midi-Pyrenees regions, and asked travellers to postpone their journeys. It said high-speed TGV trains from Bordeaux had been stopped because of an electrical fault caused by the storm.