At least eight people were killed, more than 1,000 homes were flooded and 330,000 others left without power as violent storms swept through northern Europe, bringing hurricane force winds and heavy rain. Denmark, southern Sweden and the British Isles bore the brunt of the conditions, with 100 people forced to spend the night on a ferry after it ran aground in southwest Scotland, while a Dutch freighter issued a mayday call off the Danish coast. In northwestern England, meanwhile, the centre of the city of Carlisle was submerged underwater, with locals sheltering on upper floors, watching cars float past in the street below. Thousands of people were forced to abandon their homes in the city on Saturday evening, being rescued either by boat or by helicopter from the roof, local police said. Four people were killed in Denmark -- two motorists who died when trees crashed onto their cars, and two others who were killed when a roof blew off a building, police said. In southern Sweden, two motorists were also killed when trees fell on their cars and a third was killed by a passing car when he tried to remove a fallen tree from a road. A fourth man was killed on his farm when bales of hay came crashing down on him during the storm, media reported. The weather also wreaked havoc for rail traffic. In northern England, a man was feared dead after being swept away by a fast-flowing river near the city of Bradford, police said. Copenhagen's Kastrup airport closed down for several hours, as did the Malmoe Sturup airport in southern Sweden, as hurricane force winds of up to 151 kilometers (94 miles) an hour lashed the region and authorities urged people to stay indoors if possible. Danish sea rescue services reported that a Dutch freighter off Denmark's west coast had called for assistance after reporting a fire on board in heavy seas. The 15-member crew tried to extinguish the flames but later evacuated the vessel and boarded a lifeboat. They were picked up safely by a Danish rescue ship after several hours. "All 15 are safely on board the ship," Hansen said. In Sweden, some 341,000 households were left without electricity, primarily in the southern and western parts of the country, power companies Vattenfall and Sydkraft said. "Unfortunately we think many people are going to be without power until Sunday," Sydkraft spokesman Jan-Erik Olsson said. All train traffic in southern Sweden was suspended, and car and train traffic on the Oeresund bridge linking Copenhagen to southern Sweden was also stopped because of the storm. "There are uprooted trees in several places, rooftiles blown onto the tracks near Helsingborg (in southern Sweden)... It's chaos right now," Mattias Hennius, a spokesman for the Swedish rail authority Banverket told Swedish news agency TT. Emergency crews were having a hard time reaching people in need of help. Dozens of ferry routes to and from Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Britain and Germany were cancelled, while the Swedish coast guard reported that numerous vessels had anchored in the southern Baltic to seek shelter from the storm. Meanwhile, the Barsebaeck and Ringhals nuclear reactors, both in southern Sweden, were shut down due to the storm, and the Swedish meteorological service SMHI warned of flood risks for several rivers in the south and west due to rising water levels brought on by heavy rains. In Germany's northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, which borders Denmark, train traffic was halted, while road traffic came to a standstill on the North and Baltic Sea coasts, on the bridge over the Kiel Canal linking the two seas, and on the one connecting the Baltic Sea island of Fehmarn to the continent. In Ireland, more than 50,000 people were also without electricity -- around 20,000 in the Republic of Ireland and 30,000 in the North. In Scotland, 43 passengers and 57 crew were spending Saturday night on board a P and O ferry which set off from Larne in Northern Ireland before running aground at Cairnryan, Loch Ryan. No one was injured, but heavy seas meant tugs would not be able to get close to the European Highlander vessel to pull it free from the shingle beach until Sunday morning, P and O said. Around the British Isles, trucks toppled over, river banks burst, people were evacuated from flooded houses and uprooted trees blocked dozens of roads. Carlisle was worst affected, and while local police said the waters were receding late Saturday, officials warned that more wet weather was due on Sunday. About a dozen trucks overturned on a motorway in Cumbria and several roads were blocked because of flooding and trees falling. "At the moment, high-sided vehicles should not travel at all. Our advice to drivers of ordinary vehicles is to only travel if your journey is absolutely necessary," the police spokesman warned. Elsewhere, the Netherlands was also hit by storms, with a German teenager injured as he was hang-gliding at Zeewolde, in the centre of the country. In contrast, Prague was bathed on Saturday in an unseasonal temperature of 13.8 degrees Celsius (57 Fahrenheit) the warmest January weather ever recorded in 230 years of official records. **PHOTO CAPTION*** The harbor of Esbjerg, southern Jutland, Denmark, is flooded by North Sea waters. (AFP)