By Staff, Agencies An Atlantic storm battered northwestern European on Friday with record winds of up to 122 miles per hour, killing at least nine people, knocking out power for tens of thousands and shredding the roof of London's O2 arena.

London was eerily empty after the British capital was placed under its first ever "red" weather warning, meaning there was "danger to life." By nightfall, police there said a woman in her 30s had died after a tree fell on a car she was a passenger in.

Meanwhile, a man in his 50s was also killed in northwest England after debris struck the windscreen of a vehicle he was travelling in, according to Merseyside Police.

Beyond Britain, falling trees killed three people in the Netherlands and a man in his 60s in southeast Ireland, while a Canadian man aged 79 died in Belgium, according to officials in each country.

Meanwhile Eunice's winds knocked out power to more than 140,000 homes in England, mostly in the southwest, and 80,000 properties in Ireland, utility companies said.

Experts debated whether the frequency and intensity of storms in recent years could be directly linked to climate change