VIENNA, Austria — The end of Germany's 3-2 win over Turkey in the European Championship semifinal was a thriller that few outside the stadium saw.

A violent thunderstorm swept across Austria to knock out telecommunications for most of the second half of the gripping match. Television pictures reappeared briefly, but then vanished altogether for most of the last 15 minutes, when three goals were scored to give Germany a place in Sunday's final. Internet coverage of the game also was interrupted.

Spectators at the match in the Swiss city of Basel remained dry and unperturbed throughout.

The problems arose in neighboring Austria, where lightning, thunder and torrential rain took down satellite links that beam the match action all over the world. ESPN cut back to its studio analysts during the outages and showed video of spectators watching at a FanFest in Basel.

Officials also shut down Vienna's main Euro 2008 fan zone and evacuated fans after the thunderstorm lashed the Austrian capital. Authorities said they gave the order to close the fan zone after the storm unleashed winds exceeding 60 mph.

No injuries were reported during the evacuation, which was carried out during the match.

UEFA officials were not immediately available for comment on the communications problems.