UK records a fourth death linked to a storm that battered northern Europe

LONDON (AP) — Police said Sunday that a fourth person has died in Britain during a storm that pounded the U.K. and northern Europe with gale-force winds and torrential rain.

Derbyshire Police said a woman in her 80s was found dead at a home in Chesterfield, central England. Her death was being linked to flooding in the area.

In nearby Derby, the River Derwent reached its highest-ever recorded level on Saturday during a storm that brought 8 inches (200 mm) of rain to parts of Britain.

Since Thursday, at least five people have died in the storm -- named Babet by the U.K. Meteorological Office -- that battered Britain, northern Germany and southern Scandinavia with powerful winds, heavy rain and sea surges.

In Britain, a man and a woman were killed after being swept away by floodwaters, and another man died when a tree fell on his vehicle. In Germany, a 33-year-old woman was killed when a tree fell on her car on the Baltic Sea island of Fehmarn on Friday.

A search was continuing for a man reported trapped in a vehicle in floodwater in Scotland.

Some of the worst flooding was in eastern Scotland, where more than 300 homes were evacuated in the town of Brechin and residents told to leave before the River South Esk breached its banks Friday, surging almost 4 meters (13 feet) above its usual level and sending water pouring into the streets.

Coast guard helicopters lifted more than half the staff off a North Sea oil platform almost 150 miles (240 kilometers) east of Scotland, after four of its eight anchors came loose during the storm on Saturday. Operator Stena Drilling said the Stena Spey platform was stable.

The weather calmed Sunday but flooding continued to cause disruption to road and rail travel across a large swath of central and northern Britain. The Environment Agency issued more than 200 flood warnings for parts of England and said major rivers could remain flooded until Tuesday.