One man has died and two more are missing after gale force winds hit parts of Britain and Ireland.

Weather forecasters say the situation has been worst in Ireland, where a man was killed when a falling tree crushed his car.

Winds there have reached up to one-hundred-sixty kilometres per hour.

In another incident, a man walking along a beach in southern England was swept out to sea by a large wave and in the south west, a man is reported to have been swept away by flood waters.