Violent storms rage over Germany

The low pressure system "Zeynep" has caused severe weather conditions in parts of Germany, as German media reported on Friday. Nine cars crashed in the early hours of Friday on an icy highway in Schleswig Holstein, the northernmost state in the country, A woman was critically injured while three others received serious injuries. "After a strong hailstorm, the road was covered with ice within a short period," a police spokesman said. In the western German state of Hesse, the town of Fulda hit the worst by the storm. According to police, its flooded train station required the fire brigade to intervene on Thursday evening. "Zeynep" primarily hit France and led to blackouts in more than 50,000 homes in the southwest of the country. The storm is set to continue in Germany, meteorologist Christian Herold from the German weather service said, adding a cold front would reach eastern areas on Friday. The storm is expected to abate by the weekend, said Herold.