Two killed as storm batters France and Britain

RENNES, France (Reuters) - An Atlantic storm battered southern Britain and northern France on Monday, killing two people, sinking a trawler in the Channel and blowing a cargo vessel aground on the French coast.

The storm, which began late on Sunday, brought down trees and power lines and pounded coastal defences.

French maritime authorities said a 26-year-old man fell into the sea when his small boat was hit by a large wave on Sunday in the small port of Relecq-Kerhuon, near Brest in the far west of Brittany.

His body was found early on Monday. A second man who was in the vessel was rescued by friends in another boat nearby.

A woman motorist was crushed to death when a branch torn from a tree by gale-force winds landed on her car at Saint-Denis le Ferment in southern Normandy, northwest of Paris, French media reports said.

A trawler from the port of Saint-Brieuc on the north coast of Brittany sank in winds of up to 110 km an hour off Guernsey in the Channel Islands, French authorities said. The crew of five were picked up by other fishing boats.

The Dutch-registered cargo ship Artemis was blown onto a beach at the Atlantic coastal resort of Les Sables d'Olonne. Bad weather prevented an attempt to refloat the vessel before nightfall.

Gales brought down power lines, cutting electricity supplies briefly to several thousand homes in northwest France.

Across the Channel, winds gusting at more than 130 km an hour brought down trees, ripped off roof tiles and damaged power lines, cutting electricity to 10,000 homes in southern Britain.