At least 16 people have been killed in storms that have lashed parts of Spain, Portugal and France.
Winds of up to 140km/h (87mph) caused chaos as they moved from Portugal up through the Bay of Biscay.
Twelve people have died in France and three in Spain as well as a 10-year-old boy in Portugal.
The storm is expected to track north-eastwards during the course of Sunday, reaching Denmark by the evening, French meteorological authorities said.
Falling trees
The storm system, which has been called Xynthia, has put five of the 95 French departments on red alert - only the second such warning since the new emergency system was introduced in 2001.
Hundreds of thousands of homes in west and south-west France have lost electricity while a number of French coastal villages were flooded.
Some people had taken to their roofs in the Vendee region, one policeman told the Agence France-Presse news agency by telephone.
Police helicopters were in action attempting to locate and rescue people marooned on their roofs.
Most of the French fatalities were caused by drowning, but some were killed by flying debris, according to AFP.
A tree claimed the lives of two Spanish men when their vehicle was hit and a Spanish woman aged 82 was killed by a falling wall in Galicia.
The Portuguese boy was also killed by a tree.
Rail services were severely affected in northern Spain, and a major road crossing between France and Spain was closed to heavy goods vehicles.
Air France said that 70 of its flights were cancelled from Charles de Gaulle airport airport in Paris.
According to a report on Europe 1 radio, wind speeds hit 175km/h at the top of the Eiffel Tower in the French capital.
Spain's Canary Islands, particularly La Palma, Gran Canaria and Tenerife, were hit by the storm, although there was no great damage.
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ResponderEliminarTormenta en Europa deja 54 muertos
La mayoría de las víctimas murieron ahogadas mientras que algunas fallecieron al ser golpeadas por trozos de edificios o árboles y ramas derribados por el viento.
AP
El Universal
PARIS Lunes 01 de marzo de 2010
07:36
El presidente francés Nicolás Sarkozy prometió el lunes la entrega de cuatro millones de dólares a las regiones golpeadas por vientos huracanados que trajeron amplias inundaciones, mientras el saldo de muertos de la tormenta en Francia subió a 48, además de seis fallecidos en otros países europeos.
Durante una visita a la región afectada el lunes, Sarkozy dijo a las autoridades locales que declararía oficialmente una zona de desastre natural, lo que encauzaría rápidamente los fondos de recuperación.
La tormenta con vientos huracanados y lluvias fuertes azotó cinco países de Europa occidental, dejando al menos 53 personas muertas el domingo, la mayoría ahogadas en Francia.
Gran parte de las 48 víctimas en Francia se ahogaron, mientras que otras murieron al ser golpeadas por trozos de edificios o árboles y ramas derribados por el viento. Había al menos 10 desaparecidos y 59 heridos.
Además, tres personas murieron en España, una en Alemania y una en Bélgica. Un niño murió en Portugal, aplastado por ramas de un árbol.
La mayor cantidad de muertes se registraron en la región francesa de Vandea sobre la costa atlántica.
El ministro Brice Hortefeux dijo el lunes a la radiodifusora France-Info que el número de muertes ''sin duda'' se incrementará mientras más de nueve mil rescatistas realizan revisiones casa por casa.
La tormenta Xynthia llegó a Francia en la madrugada del domingo, inundando algunas partes, destruyendo casas y dejando a cerca de un millón de hogares sin electricidad.
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