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AFP
LISBON
STORMS packing nearly 180 km-per-hour winds hit Portugal early on Sunday, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power before carrying heavy rain on into Spain, authorities said.
Twenty-seven people suffered minor injuries, civil defence commander Luis Belo Costa told reporters.
The region around capital Lisbon and the centre of the country at Coimbra and Leiria were worst hit with trees uprooted, cars and houses damaged and local flooding reported.
Aveiro, Viseu and Porto in the north also suffered damage with rescue services reporting a total of 1,900 incidents.
The civil defence services said 324,000 people were left without electricity while more than 60 people had to leave their damaged homes and flee to safety.
Leslie was dubbed a"zombie"hurricane as it first formed on September 23, only to meander through the Atlantic Ocean for weeks.
There were fears it could be the worst storm to hit the region in more than 150 years, but it weakened to a post-tropical storm before reaching the Portuguese coastline in the early hours of Sunday.
"The greatest danger has passed,"Costa said. "The north and centre were the worst affected."
