German rail stops trains in half of country due to hurricane

German national railway company Deutsche Bahn said it has stopped long-distance train services in seven out of the country's 16 states after Hurricane Ylenia slammed northern Germany in the early hours of Thursday morning.

German national railway company Deutsche Bahn said it has stopped long-distance train services in seven out of the country's 16 states after Hurricane Ylenia slammed northern Germany in the early hours of Thursday morning. The affected federal states are Lower Saxony, Bremen, Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Berlin, though most other states are also affected, Deutsche Bahn said on Thursday.

"Some long-distance trains end and begin well before the affected states," the company said in a statement. The German Meteorological Service (DWD) said in a tweet it had recorded a wind speed of 152 kilometers per hour (94 mph) on the highest peak of the Harz mountain range in northern Germany at 0000 GMT.

Some German states including the country's most populous, North Rhine-Westphalia, also closed schools for Thursday.