Northern Europe lashed by winter storms with hurricane-force winds

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Icy winter storms with hurricane-force winds on Friday lashed northern Europe, where the death toll rose to 10 while hundreds of thousands suffered power blackouts and road, rail and air transport chaos.

The latest known victim was an elderly woman in north-central Sweden who was found dead in the snow outside her flat, wearing only her dressing gown.

Atlantic storm "Xaver", having barrelled across Britain, where two people died Thursday, packed winds of up to 158 kilometres (98 miles) per hour as it lashed Germany, also battering the Netherlands, Poland and southern Scandinavia.

Across northern Europe, emergency services battled to evacuate flooded harbour areas, sandbag sodden dykes and repair damage from toppled trees that crashed onto houses, highways, train tracks and electricity lines.

The highest ocean swells in decades - whipped up by the strong winds and a large tidal surge - smashed into dykes in northern Germany and the Netherlands, which however reported no major breaches.

Despite the deaths and turmoil, affected countries breathed a sigh of relief Friday that the damage wasn't worse - mindful of catastrophic floods that hit North Sea countries in 1953, when more than 2,000 people died.