Storm disrupts E.ON power supplies in Bavaria

FRANKFURT, March 1 (Reuters) - Gale force winds swept Germany's Bavaria early on Saturday, disrupting up to 150,000 power accounts for a while, the E.ON group's regional subsidiary E.ON Bayern EONG.DE said in a press release.

It said that fallen trees had hit medium and low voltage lines, tearing down cables and causing pylon breakages. At one stage, 5,000 transformer substations were briefly out of action.

The storm raged all night and most of the morning.

"By 1200 GMT, some 80,000 customers were still without power," E.ON said. "But we assume that most of them will be supplied again by the late afternoon."

E.ON personnel and other commissioned companies were out in force to fix the equipment, it said.

(Reporting by Vera Eckert, Editing by Peter Blackburn)