Winds gusting at up to 180 kilometers (112 miles) an hour were recorded at Wendelstein in Bavaria. Fallen trees disrupted traffic in several regions, including Stuttgart in the southeast.

Heavy snow fell on Lower Saxony, obstructing traffic and cutting of domestic electricity supplies. The snow was responsible for a multi-vehicle pile up on the A3 highway near Westerwald, causing damage estimated at 150,000 euros (196,000 dollars).

Police said a 49-year-old man was killed when his car hit a pitch of black ice and skidded off the road in Saxony-Anhalt. Another man died of exposure in the Sauerland.

A woman was killed in Slovakia in the Tatra mountains near the border with Poland when the car she was driving was struck by a falling tree, and a woman passenger was injured, police said.

Austrian authories said the driver of a small van was killed near Vienna when a gust of wind blew his vehicle into the path of an automobile coming from the opposite direction. The driver of the other vehicle was reported grievously injured.

A worker was seriously injured when he was blown off scaffolding at Styria in southern Austria, and a pedestrian was hit by a flying tile in Salzburg.

The APA news agency said the high winds overturned five heavy trucks, caused numerous electricity cuts and resulted in blocked lines of traffic dozens of kilometers long.

In the Czech Republic, a 27-year-old man was crushed and killed when the gable of his house collapsed near Brno.

Road and rail services were seriously affected and hundreds of trees were uprooted.

The Czech-German border at Cinovec/Altenburg was closed for several hours Friday due to heavy snowfalls, police said.

Earlier, at least seven people including a six-month-old child were killed in gales in Poland Thursday that widely disrupted road traffic and left tens of thousands of homes without electricity.

The massive storm also swept across Scandinavia on Thursday disrupting land, sea and air traffic.

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