Tuesday afternoon’s storms caused relatively little damage as heavy rain, hail and winds of up to 97 kph swept the country.

Upgraded by meteorological bureau KNMI from a code yellow to a code orange, heavy gusts of wind toppled trees in Noord-Brabant, Zuid-Holland and Gelderland and caused local flooding.

There are no reports of injuries in the Netherlands, but in Belgium a two-month-old baby died when a branch fell on its head in Ukkel, near Brussels.

In many places services have been hard at work to clear roads blocked by fallen trees and debris. Tunnels and viaducts were flooded while in Amsterdam West the sewage system was unable to cope with the amount of water, causing several streets to become inundated.

Up to 50mm of rain fell in southern parts of Noord-Brabant, while Amsterdam recorded 40mm of rain. Most calls to the fire service were to deal with local flooding.

Flights from Schiphol airport were cancelled, while train operator NS limited services on its high-speed rail line between Rotterdam and Breda as a precaution.

In Drunen, in Brabant, lightning caused a fire in a chicory growing business.

In some places, a rare supercell occurred, a storm which feeds off a current of rising air that is tilted and rotated. “That only happens during the most intense storms,” NOS weatherman Peter Kuipers Munneke said.