* Winds of 99 mph recorded in southern England
* Heathrow cancels 130 flights in high winds
* Strong winds strike France, Netherlands, Scandinavia
By Marie-Louise Gumuchian and Anthony Deutsch
LONDON/AMSTERDAM, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Hurricane strengthwinds battered Britain, the Netherlands and Scandinavia onMonday, killing at least seven people, cutting power and forcingthe cancellation of hundreds of flights and train journeys.
Gusts of up to 99 mph (160 kph) lashed southern England andWales in the worst storm recorded in Britain in a decade. ADanish man was killed when the storm later struck Scandinaviawith undiminished force.
Southern Sweden was hit by torrential rain, and winds up to38 meters per second blew down trees, blocking roads andbringing down power lines, leaving around than 50,000 householdswithout electricity.
The storm had barrelled in overnight, leaving a trail ofdamage across parts of southern Britain as the rush hour commutebegan as well as hitting northern France and the Netherlands.
A 17-year-old girl was killed when a tree fell onto her homewhile she slept in Kent, southeast of London, while a man in his50s was killed when a tree crushed his car in the town ofWatford, just north of the capital.
A man and a woman were found dead in west London afterseveral houses were damaged in a suspected gas explosion on astreet where the storm blew a tree down. London police said thetree may have damaged gas pipes, causing the explosion.
A crane smashed into the Cabinet Office, a ministry in theheart of London, forcing Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg tocancel a news conference.
Thin volumes on London's financial markets suggested manytraders had been stuck at home, along with millions of commuterswho would normally head into London but were thwarted by trainand Tube lines being shut by toppled trees and power failures.
London's Heathrow airport said 130 flights were cancelled.
Passenger Nozipho Mtshede said she was going to miss herfather's funeral in Zimbabwe due to her flight being delayedeight hours: "I won't make it because they can't keep him soI'll have to miss his burial."
Heavy winds also swept across the low-lying Netherlands,shutting down all train traffic to Amsterdam. Hurricane-forcewinds of more than 150 kph were recorded on one of the islandsoff the northern Dutch coast.
Uprooted trees smashed cars, homes and sank a houseboatalong an Amsterdam canal. Roofs were blown off buildings andseveral houseboats were ripped off their moorings, police said.
A woman was killed and two people were seriously hurt byfalling trees in the Dutch capital and a ferry carrying 1,000people from the English city of Newcastle was unable to dock inthe port of IJmuiden and returned to sea, RTL television said.
Fifty flights at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport were cancelledand Rotterdam Port, Europe's busiest, said incoming and outgoingvessels were delayed.
COUNTING COST
In France, a 47-year-old woman was found dead after beingswept out to sea during a cliff walk on Belle Ile, an island offFrance's northwestern Brittany coast where the high windsgenerated waves of 5 to 6 metres, local authorities said.
Winds topping 100 kph struck the north and northwest of thecountry felling trees, whipping up seas and cutting powersupplies to around 75,000 homes, according to the ERDFelectricity distribution company.
Homes and businesses were counting the cost of the damage asa British Met Office spokeswoman said the worst of the storm inBritain had passed by late morning as it headed eastward.
Some 486,000 properties in Britain were left without power,UK Power Networks said, in one of the worst storms to hitEngland since the 1987 "Great Storm" which killed 18 people andfelled around 15 million trees. By mid-afternoon, 115,000properties were still without power.
The Association of British Insurers said it was too early togive figures on the insured loss. A storm in Britain in 1987storm caused 2.2 billion pounds of damage in today's terms (1billion in 1987 money). The last comparable storm to Monday'swas in 2002, a Met Office spokesman said.
"The issue for us will be flooding more than the wind,"Philip Moore, group finance director at LV, which insures morethan 500,000 British homes, said. "So far it is not as bad as'87."
Gusts - in places above the 33 meters per second classifiedas hurricane force - battered Scandinavia from mid-afternoon,closing the bridge between Sweden and Denmark and paralysingroad and rail transport.
A Danish man was killed in Gilleleje, north of the capitalCopenhagen, by a collapsing wall and a woman was injured whenshe was trapped under a fallen roof in the province of Jutland.
As evening fell there were no reports of injuries in Swedenbut widespread reports of property damage. All passenger trainsremained halted in southern Sweden until the storm passed.
Firstgroup (FGP)
