LONDON (AFP) -- Hurricane force winds battered parts of Europe, killing 29 people, including two toddlers, and triggering a dramatic air-sea rescue from a sinking cargo ship in the English Channel.

The storms brought torrential rains and winds gusting at close to 170 kilometers per hour (105 miles per hour) to areas of southern Britain, northern France, the Netherlands, Germany and the Czech Republic.

In all, 12 people were killed in storm-related accidents in England, seven in Germany, five in the Netherlands, three in the Czech Republic and two in France. Many of the deaths were due to traffic accidents and falling debris.

In Munich, an 18-month-old baby was crushed to death by a door that was torn off its hinges, while a two-year-old boy was killed when a brick wall collapsed on top of him in north London.

Meanwhile, a 73-year-old man was killed after a barn door fell on him in Bavaria.

Falling trees and pylons claimed the lives of six motorists in Britain, including the managing director of central England's Birmingham airport, killed when a branch fell on his car as he was driving to work.

In addition, five elderly men and women were killed here as well.

In the southern Dutch town of Riel an 11-year-old boy died after he was hit by a car, whose driver said the child was blown into the car by a sudden gust.

In the Czech Republic a fireman was killed by a falling tree, while two youths were crushed when a tree fell on their car on the outskirts of the capital Prague.

The high winds caused chaos across the country, cutting power lines and disrupting transport with forecasters warning of worse in store during the night.

Some 20,000 households in Austria were without electricity because of trees falling on power lines, while more than 30,000 households across the northeast of England suffered a similar fate after the storms brought down overhead power lines.

The French coastguard said all the men who had been huddling in a lifeboat had been winched on board British Sea King helicopters and were taken to the navy base at Culdrose in southwestern England.

They had been forced to leave their London-registered cargo ship, the MS Napoli, after it developed a 1.5-meter (five-foot) gash just above the waterline.

A spokesman for the British coastguard on Thursday said the freighter was listing badly off the Cornish coastline.

"We don't know yet whether it will go down," he said.

French coastguard officials said the ship was carrying hundreds of tons of "dangerous" cargo including explosives and unspecified toxins, and a five-kilometer (three-mile) slick of oil pollution had been detected behind the vessel.

German meteorologists said the storm was shaping up to be the worst in five years and authorities warned people to go outside only in exceptional circumstances. The winds led to numerous flight cancellations at Frankfurt airport.

The head of the German rescue services, Albrecht Broemme, said tens of thousands of emergency workers were on standby.

"If this hits all of Germany, things could become pretty bad," he said.

In Paris all public parks, gardens and cemeteries were closed as a precaution until the end of the violent weather.

The Dutch transport ministry took the unprecedented step of issuing a warning asking all motorists to avoid getting on the road if possible.

Also the Red Cross was setting up temporary shelters for some 5,000 commuters who are stranded after the Netherlands shut down all rail traffic.