"Storm Amy is moving across the British Isles, causing strong gusts of wind in the departments near the English Channel coast and in the northern inland departments of the country," French weather service Meteo France said.

France's northern coast recorded its strongest winds since the beginning of the week, with gusts reaching 131 kilometres (81 miles) and up to 110 kph inland.

Two men aged 18 and 48 went swimming in the sea at Etretat near Le Havre despite poor weather conditions on Saturday morning, and the older man did not make it back to shore.

Firefighters said the storm prevented rescue teams from intervening, and his body was recovered at low tide in the afternoon.

Also during the afternoon, a large tree branch fell onto a vehicle that had been driving on a road in the northern Aisne region.

The male driver, 25, was killed while another passenger was severely injured and hospitalised in Amiens, the prefecture told AFP.

The storm left up to 5,000 households in Normandy without electricity on Saturday morning.

The figure dropped to 2,000 by noon but new outages have been recorded since, according to power company Enedis.

In Hervilly, in the Somme region, violent and "whirling" winds tore almost all of the roof of a house without causing any injuries, the department's prefecture told AFP.

Regional authorities in the Hauts-de-France region have imposed a speed limit for vehicles on highways and national roads until 8:00 pm on Saturday.

Storm Amy claimed one life on Friday in Ireland, where it also caused significant power outages, flight cancellations, school closures and local flooding.

Meteo France expects the storm to ease by early evening.