Three children are among several people to have died in extreme weather across parts of Western Europe.

It is reported the youngsters were killed when the roof of a sports centre near Barcelona collapsed in strong winds. In another incident in the same city a woman was fatally injured after a wall fell on her.

On the other side of the country, in the Galicia region, a policeman was killed when his car was struck by a falling tree.

The severe conditions damaged buildings and caused transport chaos across the Basque region and in southwestern France. Here, too, a man was killed when a tree was blown onto a road.

A number of airports had to be closed. Rail and road travel was also badly disrupted.

Hundreds of thousands of homes were left without electricity as the storm, with winds as high as 170km per hour, barrelled through France towards the north.

Elsewhere, an elderly man was killed in southern Germany when a barn was blown over.