Icy winter storms with hurricane-force winds have lashed northern Europe, where the death toll has risen to nine while hundreds of thousands have been left without power or stranded by transport chaos.
Emergency services across the region battled overnight to evacuate flooded harbour areas, sandbag sodden dykes and repair damage from toppled trees that crashed onto houses, roads, train tracks and power lines.
Atlantic storm "Xaver", having barrelled across Britain where two people died on Thursday, packed winds of up to 158km/h as it hit Germany, also battering the Netherlands, Poland and southern Scandinavia.
Blackouts hit 400,000 homes in Poland and affected 50,000 people in Sweden, while thousands of air passengers were stranded as flights were cancelled at Amsterdam, Berlin, Hamburg, Gdansk and other airports.
In Germany alone, more than 500 flights were scrapped, said an online travel portal, while dozens of trains were also cancelled.
The highest ocean swells in decades - due to the combined effect of strong winds and a large tidal surge - smashed into dykes in northern Germany and the Netherlands, however they reported no major breaches.
The total death toll rose further, with one man killed by a falling tree in southern Sweden, and three died in Poland.
"A tree crashed down onto a car on a local road" near the northern Polish town of Lembork, said firefighter spokesman Bogdan Madej, quoted by television station Polsat News.
"Three people died on the spot, another was taken to hospital."
The previous day in Britain, a lorry driver died when his vehicle toppled onto other cars in Scotland, while a man riding a mobility scooter was struck by a falling tree in Nottinghamshire, central England.
Also on Thursday, two Filipino sailors were swept overboard from a ship off southern Sweden and have remained missing, while a 72-year-old woman died in Denmark after strong winds tipped over her van.
