The first autumn storm caused damage and chaos in train traffic in large parts of Germany.
According to the German Weather Service (DWD), the storm field covered the entire federal territory.
Strong winds and gale-force gusts caused numerous trees to fall over on Thursday, and they toppled on rails and roads.
Police and fire brigades moved out on hundreds of missions.
People were injured in several federal states.
In Hesse, for example, a tree fell on a moving car on a country road, and the 58-year-old driver was seriously injured. In Thuringia, a branch caught the car of a driver who then also had to go to the hospital. A cyclist in Saxony-Anhalt was injured by a falling tree and therefore treated as an inpatient. A 17-year-old motorcyclist in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania was also injured. Several people were trapped in their cars by fallen trees.
A falling tree in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, barely missed a 20-year-old who was just getting out of the car.
However, a branch hit her on the head and she was taken to a clinic.
A 22-year-old said her car was hit by a gust of wind on the A31.
The woman lost control and got off the lane, her car rolled over and stopped on the driver's side - she was seriously injured in the hospital.
At times no regional traffic
In North Rhine-Westphalia, Deutsche Bahn temporarily suspended long-distance traffic.
Only after more than three hours did express trains start rolling again on the important routes from Hamburg or Berlin in the afternoon.
There were also delays and impairments in regional traffic due to branches or other objects on the tracks and in the overhead lines.
In Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, Deutsche Bahn temporarily stopped regional traffic.
How long it would take for rail traffic to run smoothly again was initially not foreseeable, according to a DB announcement in the afternoon.
The railway switched a free special hotline on 08000 996633.
The first autumn storm raged in the Harz region in particular, the DWD said.
Wind speeds of around 150 kilometers per hour were measured on the Brocken.
The measuring device even failed there for a few hours, so that, according to DWD information, the wind is likely to have been even stronger.
The Harz narrow-gauge railways had already stopped traffic on the Brocken line on Wednesday afternoon.
In Rhineland-Palatinate, too, the fire brigade and police went on many missions.
"The telephones did not stand still at the police stations in the West Palatinate," said the police headquarters in Kaiserslautern.
The storm tore off a rotor blade of a wind turbine near Kastellaun, and the Mayen police reported that there was a "debris field within a radius of about 150 meters".
In the Saarland, underpasses were flooded, in Riegelsberg the storm covered a roof.
"We have big problems around Saarbrücken," said a spokesman for Deutsche Bahn.
Power outages in several regions
In Brandenburg, a regional train came to a standstill, an employee had cleared branches from the rails, the police said.
The man was injured.
Telephone and power lines were damaged, and the power went out in several regions of Germany.
In Fulda (Hesse), parasols flying around and a trampoline that was blown away triggered police operations.
In many cities such as Rostock, Leipzig and Osnabrück, zoos and other facilities have been closed, partly because of the old and tall trees.
Parks and gardens like in Dresden and cemeteries like in Chemnitz and Erfurt were closed for security reasons, planned burials and funeral ceremonies were canceled.
In Cologne, part of the cathedral forecourt was closed.
"Beware of falling rocks" read warning signs.
Excursion destinations such as the Königstein Fortress in Saxon Switzerland also closed their gates for security reasons.
The Buchenwald Concentration Camp Memorial ended all tours after several trees had fallen and the power went out at times.
Because of the storm, the Sachsenforst warned against forest walks in the coming days.
"Because entering the forest during and after a storm can be life-threatening."
The storm also raged in the neighboring countries of the Czech Republic and France, causing police operations and train cancellations.
Several people were injured.
In many places, the storm subsided on Thursday afternoon.
In the evening it should still rain in the north and in the middle of the country and sometimes strong thunderstorms.
In the night of Friday, the wind from the west should decrease further, but according to the DWD, stiff gusts should still be possible in the north and even heavy gusts of wind on the coasts.