Manchester City v West Ham and matches across Europe postponed due to storms

The Premier League match between Manchester City and West Ham United, scheduled for Sunday afternoon, has been postponed due to "extreme and escalating weather conditions", City said in a statement.

"Due to extreme and escalating weather conditions and in the interests of supporter and staff safety, today’s match has been postponed," the statement said.

"This decision has been made by Manchester City’s Safety Officer following consultation with Club stakeholders and officials at West Ham United.

"Further information regarding the rescheduling of today’s match will be published in due course."

Manchester City Women's match against West Ham Women at Rush Green Stadium has also been postponed.

Bad weather has also forced fixture postponements in Germany and the Netherlands.

The Bundesliga game between Borussia Moenchengladbach and visitors Cologne was called off due to a weather warning for the region, the German Football League (DFL) said.

"Due to the bad weather warning of the German weather service and the resulting security concerns the game between Borussia Moenchengladbach and Cologne for the Bundesliga today Sunday will not take place," the DFL said in a statement.

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Storm 'Sabine' is due to hit the region in the western part of the country later on Sunday. In the coming days the DFL will reschedule a new date for the game, it said.

In the Dutch Eredivisie, all four scheduled matches were postponed, including Ajax's trip to Utrecht and AZ Alkmaar's home match against Feyenoord. Also postponed are Sparta Rotterdam's game against Den Haag and FC Twente's trip to FC Emmen.

Around 120 flights to and from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, one of Europe's largest, were also cancelled or delayed with gusts of more than 100 kilometres per hour.

The Netherlands Meteorological Institute issued an amber alert for Sunday afternoon as storm Ciara began to batter the Dutch coast after crossing Britain overnight.

Winds of 100km per hour were registered just after midday in the Netherlands and gusts were expected to pick up to 140km later on Sunday.

Public transportation and road traffic could be disrupted by local flooding and downed trees, authorities warned, advising people to stay indoors.