The UK weather service said a gust provisionally measured at 122 mph (196 kph), thought to be the strongest ever in England was recorded on the Isle of Wight as Storm Eunice swept across the country’s south.

The weather system, known as Storm Zeynep in Germany, is now pushing into the European mainland, prompting high wind warnings in Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany.

The storm caused mayhem with travel in Britain, shutting the English Channel port of Dover, closing bridges linking England and Wales and halting most trains in and out of London.

At least three people died in Britain, including a man in southern England killed when a car hit a tree, another man whose windshield was struck by debris in northwest England and a woman in her 30s who died in London when a tree fell on a car, police said.

In the Netherlands, firefighters said three people were killed by falling trees in and around Amsterdam, and in neighbouring Belgium an elderly man died when high winds pushed him into a canal in Ypres. In County Wexford, Ireland, a local government worker was killed as he responded to the scene of a fallen tree, the local council said.

Eunice is the second named storm to hit Europe this week, with the first storm killing at least five people in Germany and Poland. Peter Inness, a meteorologist at the University of Reading in England, attributed the storms to an unusually strong jet stream over the eastern Atlantic Ocean, with winds close to 200 mph (321 kph) at high altitudes.

A strong jet stream like this can act like a production line for storms, generating a new storm every day or two, Inness said. There have been many occasions in the recent past when two or more damaging storms have passed across the UK and other parts of Europe in the space of a few days.”

The forecast led British authorities to take the unusual step of issuing “red” weather warnings indicating a danger to life for parts of southern England, including London, and Wales that lasted through early afternoon. A lower level amber warning for gusts up to 80 mph covers the whole of England from 5 am to 9 pm.

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The MeT department has also predicted heavy to extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places in these states.

The West Bengal government has opened control rooms at state secretariat Nabanna to monitor the cyclone and its fallout, an official said.

The coastal districts of Purba and Paschim Medinipur, South and North 24 Parganas, along with Howrah and Hooghly will experience light to moderate rainfall in most places with heavy to very heavy downpour at one or two places from May 26 owing to the system, the weatherman said.

On May 26, the spread and intensity of rain will increase with the possibility of extremely heavy rainfall in Jhargram, Purba and Paschim Medinipur, North and South 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly and Kolkata, according to the MeT Department.

The Odisha government has deployed rescue teams and is chalking out plans to evacuate people from vulnerable areas, a senior official said.

The state government has deployed National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) and Fire Services personnel anticipating maximum impact in Balasore and Bhadrak districts, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) P K Jena said.

IMD Director General Dr Mrutunjay Mohapatra, better known as the ‘Cyclone Man of India’, said, “Four coastal districts of Odisha — Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur — are likely to be most impacted by the cyclonic storm.”

IMD forecast raifall in some dist it said

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