Four children were killed when the roof of a sports centre collapsed during high winds in Sant Boi near Barcelona as storms battered southwest France and northern Spain for a second day.
Authorities in the northeastern Spanish city confirmed four people were killed and said 16 were injured when a building next to a baseball court caved in. About 30 children were in the building at the time.
A spokeswoman for the interior ministry said “many children” are trapped in the debris.
A further 10 adults died elsewhere in northern Spain and south western France as high winds battered the area for a second day, cutting power, disrupting flights and blocking roads.
"It was horrific," Jose Antonio Godina, a parent, was quoted by El Mundo newspaper as saying at the sports centre. "We heard a loud noise and we thought a tree had fallen on a roof. But when we got here, the roof of the annex had literally flown off and the walls had fallen in on them."
A policeman was killed by a falling tree in Galicia, northern Spain in the early hours of this morning and a sailor from a cargo ship died when the vessel got in trouble off the coast while a 51-year-old man was killed by a falling wall in Alicante.
A 52-year-old woman was also killed as a wall collapsed on her as she walked down a street in Barcelona and another man was died after being crushed by a tree also in Catalonia.
In France, gales cut power supplies to more than one million homes and closed roads, railways and airports. Local authorities in the Landes region said one person was killed and one seriously injured when a tree fell on a car. A 78-year-old man died after being struck by flying debris while a third man aged 75 was crushed by a tree
A woman, 73, died in France's Gironde region after the storm cut the electricity powering her breathing machine
French Agriculture Minister Michel Barnier said the storm was "the worst since 1999" and said France would call on the European Union to help fund reconstruction efforts once the extent of the damage becomes clear.
Winds of up to 173 km an hour (108 miles an hour) on the coast and 160 km an hour inland paralysed southwest France. The French weather agency Meteo France placed the region under red alert and asked residents to stay indoors for their own safety.
"Stay at home and avoid any outdoor activity. If you must go out, use extreme caution," it said in a
statement. French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said she had ordered that 700 extra security forces be sent to the region to help with rescue efforts and that extra equipment also be sent to help clear roads and electric lines.
Munster's Heineken Cup match against Montauban has been postponed until tomorrow due to the weather. An Aer Arann flight carrying 56 Munster fans from Cork to Toulouse airport was diverted to Limoges airport. Flights carrying supporters from London Gatwick and Amsterdam's Schipol airports were also diverted.
Spanish authorities warned people to stay away from beaches and harbours as eight-metre waves pounded the coast. The northern province of Cantabria and the Catalonia region in the northeast remained on alert because of high winds.
A liquefied natural gas tanker operated by Gaz de France, the Provalys, was in difficulties off the French coast with a technical problem making it hard to cope with the conditions, but a company spokesman said it was under control.
The national power grid manager, Electricité Reseau Distribution France, said nearly 1.2 million homes were cut off.
The state railway company SNCF said it had been forced to halt services completely in the Aquitaine and Midi-Pyrenees regions, and asked travellers to postpone their journeys. It said high-speed TGV trains from Bordeaux had been stopped because of an electrical fault caused by the storm.