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Storm ‘Egon’ batters Switzerland

The Local
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Storm ‘Egon’ batters Switzerland
Photo; Lausanne police

A violent storm swept through the country on Thursday night to Friday morning bringing down trees and causing electricity outages that left thousands of homes in the dark.

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Communes in the Jura around Biel/Bienne were without electricity from just before 10pm until 5am after trees fell on power lines, power group BKW Energy told news agencies on Friday. 
 
Around 10,000 homes were affected. 
 
Winds of over 100km/hr battered the country, with Saint-Chrischona near Basel registering winds of 139km/hr and Cressier near Neuchâtel 116km/hr, said MeteoNews
 
In Lausanne a 25m tree fell across the road, bringing down telegraph poles and power lines, said Lausanne police. The road was closed from just after midnight until 7.30am while the trunk was cut up and removed.
 
 
After a couple of days of respite from snow, the Swiss lowlands saw snowfall again on Thursday night. 
 
Sudden downpours and hailstorms are expected on Friday, said MeteoNews, with up to 10cms of snowfall at low altitude and up to 40cms in the mountains by Saturday morning. 
 
The wintry weather will continue into next week with a bise wind making it feel even colder from Monday, it said.

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