BERLIN - A storm caused significant material damage and left one woman slightly injured in northern Germany overnight, police said Friday. Hundreds of basements were flooded as the storm, with winds as high as 80 kilometres (50 miles) an hour swept through the region.

A police spokesman said that in Lueneburg in the state of Lower Saxony that the wind was so strong that two cars were overturned. Tiles ripped from buildings and paper containers flew through the air.

Up to 75 centimetres of water flooded some streets, the spokesman said. In Hamburg, more than 900 firemen and rescue workers carried out more than 1,400 missions. In the state of Brandenburg, which is adjacent to the capital Berlin, rainfall in Potsdam was measured over an hour at 30 liters of water per square meter.

In a previous storm in Germany on July 10, at least seven people were killed and some 40 injured when a freak storm with winds of more than 150 kilometres (90 miles) an hour lashed Berlin and surrounding areas.