Dozens of campers had to be evacuated at several villages in Brittany in western France, while two amateur sailors were rescued off the region's coast after bad weather hit overnight Wednesday, rescue services said.

Seventy people were moved off two campsites in the middle of the night in the south of western Brittany's Finistere department. Campers in other nearby areas also left their tents because of the risk from falling branches.

Coastguards had to rescue a 45-year-old man and his daughter who ran into difficulty on board their 12-metre (40-foot) sailboat off south Brittany's Morbihan coast. The two were taken to hospital suffering from hypothermia.

A British man vacationing in France with his family drowned Thursday while swimming in rough waters off the Atlantic coast near the Spanish border, lifeguards said.

The 40-year-old man was swimming outside the patrolled area of a beach at Messanges, north of Biarritz, when he disappeared in waves up to 2.5 metres (eight feet) high, said the head of the regional coastguard unit, Lieutenant Jean-Bernard Rivet.

On Tuesday and Wednesday nine people died in southern France as high winds and rough seas hit the region's coastlines.

In Portugal, which since last week has seen unusually heavy rains for the time of year, many beaches were flying red flags and rescue services recorded five people as having drowned or disappeared off Portuguese beaches on Wednesday alone.

The search continued Thursday for a Frenchman on holiday in the north of Portugal who went missing a day earlier while he was swimming, an official told the Portuguese press.

The 39-year-old fireman disappeared while swimming at the beach of Carreco near Viana do Castelo while the red flag was flying.

Two youngsters, aged 13 and 18, sons of Portuguese emigrants living in France who were swimming near Leiria north of Lisbon, also disappeared on Wednesday.

A 45-year-old Danish man drowned at a beach in the suburbs of Lisbon, while another child of eight drowned near Santarem.

In Belgium, fierce storms in many areas Wednesday -- notably around Brussels and in the south of the country -- left cellars flooded and felled trees, although no one was hurt, according to the Belga news agency.

The southern village of Muno saw a "mini-tornado" which damaged some 25 roofs, while the central square in Liege was partially flooded. On Thursday, the weather was calmer although strong winds were expected to persist, it said.

Similarly, the central German state of Hesse saw heavy rainfall, storms and high winds which caused damage during the night of Wednesday and Thursday. Cellars were flooded and trees were blown over onto parked cars in several cities.

In Solms, a group of 22 teenagers, aged 13 to 15, were camping when their tent blew away. They were forced to seek shelter in a youth hostel.

In Scotland workers were beginning to clear thousands of tonnes of mud and rock from a main road, a day after two massive landslides left more than 50 people stranded.

Motorists had to be winched to safety by helicopter after the landslides blocked two parts of the A85 motorway in central Scotland and washed several cars down the hillside.

At the same time, a massive clear-up was also continuing in Cornwall, southwest England, where the tourist village of Boscastle was devastated on Monday by a huge flash flood.

Further deaths on Wednesday in southern France brought to nine the number of people killed in the area since a sudden change in weather that began on Tuesday.

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TERRA.WIRE