Storm knocks out power for up to 25,000 near Freiburg, Germany

A storm cut power to as many as 25,000 people in and around Freiburg, Germany, in the early hours of Sunday, regional broadcaster SWR reported, citing police; supply was fully restored by around 11am.

Energy provider Badenova said about 10,000 households lost power. The first faults began around 3:40am in Freiburg's Kappel district, when strong winds blew trees into overhead power lines; a second, larger outage followed around 5:30am when a storm-torn corrugated roof panel from a substation in the Littenweiler district struck overhead lines, Badenova told SWR.

Supply was restored gradually through the morning via an alternative substation; by around 10am most households already had electricity back, a Badenova spokeswoman said, with the last areas, Oberried, a small municipality south-east of Freiburg, and Falkensteig in the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district, reconnected by around 11am, SWR reported.

Freiburg's university hospital was briefly affected and said on Instagram that its emergency department could treat only life-threatening cases while the power was down; normal operations resumed once electricity was restored, at 11:15am. Mobile phone coverage was also partly knocked out in the city, the city of Freiburg said.

The storm, one of two systems named Luise and Manja by meteorologists as they crossed Germany over the weekend, also disrupted rail travel: hundreds of passengers were stranded on a regional train near Pforzheim, and trains could not reach Karlsruhe's main station for a time; a woman was slightly injured near Karlsruhe, SWR reported. A storm warning remained in force for parts of the Black Forest, with forecasters warning of gusts up to 120km/h and up to 80 litres of rain per square metre, according to Germany's national weather service.

Separately in Freiburg, about 100 people were evacuated because of a fire in an underground car park, broadcaster Watson reported; further details on that incident were not available.