Storm front reaches Upper Austria, forcing festival evacuation

A storm front reached the Innviertel region on Friday evening and was expected to move into Upper Austria’s central region, ORF reported. The Linz Kronefest was interrupted for safety reasons.

At about 6.30pm, organisers decided to evacuate the Urfahr fairground, where the festival was taking place. The programme will continue if weather conditions improve during the evening, organisers said.

The first emergency callouts were reported in the Innviertel. At about 6pm, Mattighofen’s fire brigade was called to a technical operation. According to the latest reports, fallen trees had blocked roads.

Fire brigades were then called out repeatedly to secure roofs, clear trees from roads and pump out flooded cellars. Hail was also reported in Hohenzell.