Snow brings chaos to Austria and southern Germany

Long and dense snowfalls brought havoc to southern Germany and Austria yesterday, triggering avalanches, felling trees, blocking roads and rail and cutting electricity to thousands of homes.

Rescuers made slow progress trying to reach people still trapped at an ice rink in the German town of Bad Reichenhall where at least 15 people died on Monday when the roof, weighed down by masses of snow, collapsed.

Experts said an unusual mix of warmer weather - with temperatures just above freezing - and downfalls lasting for up to 30 hours had led to the chaos in an area used to snowy winters. Some 30cm has fallen since Monday morning.

"What was untypical is that it was first cold last week and snowed a lot and then became mild but continued snowing," said Michael Staudinger, head of the avalanche warning service of the regional government of Salzburg in central Austria.

"This has raised the snow's density enormously and hence its weight." The resultant kind of slushy snow weighs about three times as much as fresh powder snow.

The Salzburg area and Bavaria, over the border in Germany, raised the avalanche danger level to four, the second highest, after a snowslide killed three people in Bavaria.

Snow brought down trees and power lines throughout central and northern Austria and southeast Bavaria, cutting off around some 18,000 homes in Austria and 12,000 in Germany.

"Whole trees are tumbling," said a spokesman for Austria's EVN utility company.

Snow drifts and trees blocking tracks have brought train traffic to a standstill on a major route connecting Salzburg to western Austria via Germany, including a night train to Paris that was trapped for half a day, German railways said.

"We have already fixed some 200 problems like this, but there are more and more coming and it will stay the same as long as the snow storm lasts," a railways spokesman said.

Police closed the Salzburg-Villach motorway in Austria for fear of avalanches and trees blocked another motorway. These roads were cleared, but over 50 secondary roads and mountain passes stayed closed because of avalanche danger and fallen trees. The 30cm of snow that has fallen in north-central Austria since early Monday was heavier and wetter than normal, said Michael Butschek of Austria's Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics.

Meanwhile, at least two people were trapped after a roof at a supermarket in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava collapsed under the weight of heavy snow, the CTK news agency reported yesterday.