During a severe hailstorm in the Upper Bavarian district of Freising, a 53-year-old cyclist was killed by a falling tree on Monday evening. A 15-year-old pedestrian and a car driver were seriously injured by falling trees, the police reported.
The head of the police department in Moosburg, Christian Bidinger, said the 53-year-old man from Baden-Württemberg was surprised by the storm with his wife on a bike path in Moosburg. A falling tree hit him hard. His wife was unharmed. The 15-year-old, who was traveling with a friend on the banks of the Amper, was seriously injured by a tree and flown to a Munich hospital in a rescue helicopter. The friend was unharmed. In Au in der Hallertau, a car was hit by a tree and the driver was taken to a clinic with serious injuries.
In the city of Moosburg an der Isar, which has around 20,000 inhabitants, and several communities in the surrounding area, the electricity also failed: “Everything is in the dark,” said the spokeswoman for the district office. The Technical Relief Agency set up an emergency power supply for retirement homes where ventilators had failed.
The Moosburg area was without electricity for hours, numerous lines were destroyed. The district advised: “Also as a precaution, inform your neighbors and provide help if necessary. If necessary, the fire brigade can be alerted via the siren triggering – at the equipment house/town hall. … Reduce your power consumption via rechargeable batteries and batteries to that essentials.” It was only shortly before midnight that the district office reported that the power supply had been restored – with the exception of the Wallen community. The storm also “hit badly” several communities in the north of the Freising district, said district fire officer Manfred Danner, who is the local operations manager in the Freising district.
A woman shovels hailstones after the severe storm in the Freising district.
(Photo: Armin Weigel/dpa)
For hours, lifeguards, divers and a police helicopter also searched for a woman who, according to witnesses, could have been surprised by the storm in a bathing lake near Moosburg. The search was unsuccessful. But there was also no missing person report, said Bidinger. The area around the quarry pond is currently being searched for objects that could indicate that someone has not returned to land from swimming.
The fire brigade, THW, police and rescue services were deployed with a total of 400 emergency services. Roads were also closed due to the storm damage. There were large amounts of hailstones on sidewalks and roads.
Train traffic between Freising and Landshut in Lower Bavaria was blocked due to the storm damage. The section between Moosburg and Bruckberg was affected, said a railway spokesman on Tuesday morning. The overhead line was damaged there and is currently being repaired. The closure is expected to be lifted around noon. Until then, travelers will have to transfer to buses on the route.
Fallen trees in Lower Bavaria, power failure in Munich-Bogenhausen
A dozen fallen trees were reported in Lower Bavaria by the early evening, said a spokesman for the Lower Bavaria police headquarters in Straubing. In addition, a skylight was destroyed by hail.
Stadtwerke München recorded a power failure in parts of Bogenhausen in the evening. According to the police, the storm had only minor effects in districts in northern Upper Bavaria, apart from a few fallen trees.
The German Weather Service (DWD) had warned of extreme thunderstorms in Upper and Lower Bavaria: On Monday afternoon there was a risk of thunderstorms of warning level 4 out of 4 until 6 p.m., it said in a statement. The DWD warned of lightning, uprooted trees and damaged roofs. Flooding of cellars and streets as well as local flooding of streams and small rivers are possible. Landslides could also occur. Staying outdoors should be avoided.
The DWD predicts that thunderstorms, some of them severe, could also occur throughout the Free State in the coming days – occasionally with heavy rain, hail and gusts of wind.