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Heavy Winds, Rain Kill 10 in England

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Associated Press

Winds gusting up to 90 m.p.h. and heavy rain pounded southern Britain on Friday, toppling trees, ripping down power lines and killing at least 10 people.

The storm sent ships scurrying for shelter and disrupted ferry service across the Irish Sea. Gale force winds halted all salvaging of the British ferry Herald of Free Enterprise, which capsized three weeks ago off the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, killing at least 134 people.

In southern England, power was out for thousands of homes. Dozens of roads were flooded and several large bridges closed in Wales.

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Three men were killed and three injured when a tree crashed on a van near Banstead, south of London, police said. A train smashed into a fallen tree outside a station in nearby Dormansland and the trunk split in two and pierced the front car, seriously injuring one commuter and trapping four others.

16-Year-Old Girl Crushed

A 16-year-old girl was crushed to death when wind toppled a wall at her school in Caldicot, south Wales, and a 20-year-old woman died when a wall was blown down on her in a north London street, police said.

A police sergeant helping to clear a road in Norfolk county in eastern England was killed by a falling tree.

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A laborer was killed in a landslide on a construction site at Edington in western England when a mound of soil he was clearing was dislodged by heavy rain, police said.

A truck driver died when a sudden gust of wind forced his high-sided vehicle into oncoming traffic near Shrewsbury, and wind apparently caused the death of a motorcyclist who crashed near Gloucester.

Winds gusting up to 90 m.p.h. buffeted the southern coasts of England and Wales. A French fisherman was listed as missing and presumed drowned after being swept overboard from his trawler about 28 miles off the southwest England port of Falmouth.

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