Winds of up to 105 km per hour and hailstones with a diameter of five cm battered the Netherlands in last night’s heavy storm, news agency ANP reports.

The hailstones, recorded in Woensdrecht in the south of the country, were ‘exceptional’, a spokesman for the KNMI weather bureau said.
By 6.30am, the storm had moved away to the north east, but had a knock-on effect on this morning’s rush hour traffic.
Trains in particular were experiencing delays of around an hour, a spokesman for Prorail told ANP. Hundreds of railway workers are out clearing the track of branches and repairing damaged overhead power cables. No trains are running around Amersfoort.
Road closures
The ANWB motoring organisation reports that motorway signs in Zuid Holland were not working because of the storm. In Rotterdam, the A20 was closed in both directions at Kleinpolderplein as was part of Amsterdam’s A10 ring road.
On the A2 between Den Bosch and Amsterdam there was a traffic jam stretching 30 km by 7am after a safety rail was blown loose and a car drove into it, the ANWB said.
In the Hague, the local transport company HTM said the situation with trams was chaotic because of all the tree debris on the tracks.
The KNMI says showers, sometimes accompanied by thunder and lightning, can be expected in the east of the country.
For lightning and storm damage photos, click here