A sudden windstorm mixed with torrential rain toppled a construction crane and several trees in Vienna today, killing two people, officials in the Austrian capital said. |
Traffic at Vienna's Schwechat international airport had to be suspended for 35 minutes because of high winds and lightning, and delays of more than an hour were reported afterwards, Austrian news agency APA reported.
A crane operator was killed when his rig crashed during high winds onto the roof of Vienna's fire department headquarters, a department spokesman said. No one in the building was injured.
A falling tree killed a 60-year-old woman and seriously injured a man on the premises of a rowing club near the Danube River, APA reported.
Rescue workers reported overturned trees, roofs ripped off houses and flooded homes in the province of Lower Austria west of Vienna during the storm, which broke a heat wave that put temperatures up to 35 Celsius (95 Fahrenheit).