Events
January
- January 1: Spain assumed the Presidency of the Council of the European Union from Sweden.
- January 3: Two passenger trains collided in Bilecik, Turkey. One train driver was killed and seven passengers were injured. [1]
- January 7: 22 people had died in the UK due to a cold snap. [2]
- January 10: The opposition Social Democrat, Ivo Josipović, won 60.3% of the vote in the second round run-off, beating the mayor of Zagreb, Milan Bandić. [3]
- January 11: More than 5,300 residents in the regions of Shkodër and Lezhë were evacuated due to severe flooding in northern Albania. [4]
- January 25: Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 crashed into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after take-off from Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport, killing all 90 people on board. [5]
February
- February 3: The sculpture L'Homme qui marche I by Alberto Giacometti sells in London for £65 million (US$103.7 million), setting a new world record for a work of art sold at auction. [6]
- February 16: A bus carrying French children on a school trip has overturned in Italy, killing at least three people on board and injuring another 20. [7]
- February 18: A scattered exchange of gunfire on the line of contact dividing Azerbaijani and the Karabakh Armenian military forces left six people dead and one wounded. [8]
- February 25: A collision between two trains in Buizingen, Belgium, left 18 people dead and 162 injured. [9]
- February 26: At least 63 people were killed and one million homes were left without power in western France after cyclone Xynthia crossed Western Europe. [10] [11]
March
- March 20: 67 people were arrested and several people were injured in Bolton town centre during a clash between members of the English Defence League and Unite Against Fascism. [12]
- March 24: A set of 16 goods wagons runaway for 8 km from a freight station at Alnabru in Oslo to hit and destroy a quayside warehouse. Three people died, and four were seriously injured. [13]
- March 29: At least 40 people died after two female suicide bombers struck the Moscow Metro. [14] [15]
- March 31: A coach crashed into a river after falling from a bridge in a snowstorm in Lanark, Scotland, killing a 17-year-old girl and injuring 44 passengers. [16]
April
- April 1: A locomotive ran into a stationary passengers tram after its brakes failed during a test ride in Spišská Nová Ves, Slovakia, killing three people and injuring seriously eight others. [17]
- April 10: The President of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, was among 96 killed when their airplane crashed in western Russia. [18]
- April 12: A passenger train was hit by a landslide and partially derailed near Merano, Italy, killing 9 and injuring 28. [19]
- April 14: Over 95,000 flights had been cancelled all across Europe because violent eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull. [20]
- April 25: Austrian candidate for chairmanship, Heinz Fischer, won the presidential election with 79.3% of the valid votes. [21]
May
- May 5: Up to 500,000 people protested in front of the Greek Parliament amid plans to cut public spending and raise taxes as austerity measures in exchange for a €110 billion bail-out. [22] The protest degenerated in violences between protesters and riot police, resulting in three deaths and dozens of injuries. [23]
- May 14: Throughout Eastern Europe, 21 people were killed in floods triggered by the Windstorm Yolanda.
- May 24: Three people were killed and 35 injured when a Honda Civic car collided with a school bus near Keswick, Cumbria. [24]
June
- June 2: 13 people were killed and 25 injured in a shooting spree in Cumbria, England. [25] [26]
- June 6: A passenger train collided with boulders that had fallen on the line near Falls of Cruachan, Scotland, derailed and caught fire. Several people were hospitalised and the line was blocked for a week. [27]
- June 15: Heavy rainfall in southern France caused severe floods in the department of Var, resulting in at least 25 deaths. [28]
- June 23: A passenger train struck a group of people who were crossing the railway on the level at Platja de Castelldefels station near Barcelona. [29] Twelve people were killed, and fourteen injured. [30]
July
- July 1: Belgium assumed the Presidency of the Council of the European Union from Spain.
- July 11: A traffic accident, near Inishowen, in Ireland, killed eight people. [31]
- July 13: Two trains collided at Korzybie, in north Poland, injuring 36 people. [32]
- July 18: Fourteen people were killed and twelve injured after a bus fell off a cliff in northern Albania, near the city of Durrës. [33]
- July 23: One person was killed and 42 were injured when an eastbound Glacier Express derailed near Fiesch on the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn. [34]
- July 24: At least 21 people have been killed and 510 more injured in a stampede at the Love Parade dance music festival in the German city of Duisburg. [35]
August
- August 6: One person died and about 40 were injured in a train derailment in Naples, Italy, on the Circumvesuviana railway. [36]
- August 17
- A sewage tanker lorry struck and derailed a passenger train on a level crossing at Little Cornard, England. 21 people were injured. [37]
- The Intercity-Express from Frankfurt to Paris hit a truck that had slid onto the rail near Lambrecht. The first two carriages derailed and ten people were injured. [38]
September
- September 19: A woman armed with an automatic weapon has shot dead three people and injured 18 others at a hospital in Germany before being killed by police. [39] [40]
- September 26: A Polish tourist bus returning from Spain careered into a bridge on a rain-soaked German motorway, killing 13 people. [41]
October
- October 1: 40 people were injured when a train derailed at Skotterud, Norway. [42]
- October 4: Nine people died and 122 were injured in flooding from a ruptured red sludge reservoir at the Ajkai Timföldgyár alumina plant, Hungary. [43]
- October 12
- A bus packed with rush-hour commuters crashed into a train at a level crossing in Ukraine after jumping a red traffic light, killing 45 people and leaving another 9 wounded. [44]
- At most 3.5 million people attended a series of demonstrations organised by the French Union leaders throughout France. [45]
November
December
- December 10: Former Prime Minister of Croatia, Ivo Sanader, was arrested in Austria over charges of corruption. [47]