The third serious storm in a year has brought little damage to the Netherlands. Some trees have been brought down and there has been structural damage in places but no injuries have been reported, Nos television said.

At the height of the storm, winds of up to gale force 10 hit northern parts of the Dutch coast and the fire brigade had been called out some 2,000 times early on Tuesday morning.

The ANWB motoring organisation said strong gusts of winds were still buffeting commuter traffic in the morning. The KNMI weather bureau has issued a code yellow weather warning for the entire country.

Two ferries taking people from France to England have had to spend the night at sea because of the strong winds battering the English coast.

However, there are no reports of delays at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport or on the Dutch railways.

The winds are set to drop as the day progresses. Christmas day will be a mixture of rain with sunny spells later in the day and temperatures of around 8 Celcius.