Girl dies in coach crash as blizzards hit parts of UK

Blizzards swept through parts of the UK yesterday, leaving a teenager on a school trip dead and tens of thousands of homes without power.

Natasha Paton, 17, was killed when her coach bound for the Alton Towers theme park plunged 10ft into a stream during a snowstorm.

Another 44 people on the Lanark Grammar School outing needed hospital treatment after the early morning crash at Wiston in South Lanarkshire, Scotland.

The Lanark Grammar School coach crashed on the A73 shortly after 6 a.m. just 12 miles into the trip to Alton Towers, Staffordshire, which was organised as a break from exam studies for sixth-year pupils.

Natasha, from Cleghorn, near Lanark, is thought to have been thrown out of the vehicle and become trapped underneath it.

Police said the cause of the accident was still under investigation, but given the "horrendous" conditions in the area it was clear snow "had a part to play".

One parent questioned why the trip had gone ahead despite the atrocious weather.

Susan Thornton, who decided not to allow her son Adam to go on the outing, told the BBC News channel: "I was very surprised. It was midnight when I made the decision. When I woke it was clear that it had been snowing through the night."

Heavy snow, gale force winds and torrential rain across Scotland and Northern Ireland caused major disruption to rail services and brought travel chaos to the roads throughout the day.

Forecasters warned that yesterday's bad weather was a taste of the miserable Easter weekend which lies ahead for Britain.

In Scotland more than 20,000 homes were left without electricity this morning as engineers battled to fix faults.

Northern Ireland Electricity said about 100,000 customers had suffered power cuts in the past 24 hours.

And about 300 people - including a group of children on a school bus - had to be rescued from vehicles trapped in snow overnight on the Glenshane Pass near Londonderry.

Temperatures remained close to zero in much of Scotland yesterday, with the warmest conditions recorded in southwest England.

The mercury reached 8˚C in Jersey and the Isles of Scilly, although strong winds meant it felt cold across the country.

Forecasters said the worst of the snow was expected to be over by the end of today, but warned that the Easter bank holiday was likely to see rain and cool conditions.

Claire Austin of MeteoGroup, the Press Association's weather division, said: "It's going to be mainly cold, wet and windy over Easter."

She said today should be unsettled with the possibility of wintry showers over high ground in western Scotland. On Good Friday a band of rain is expected to move westwards across Britain.

Easter Saturday is forecast to be a day of wind and showers, while Easter Sunday will see the best of the holiday weather, with temperatures reaching 12˚C (54˚F) in southern England.

Ms Austin said: "It should, at least, be dry in most places on Easter Sunday but it will be unsettled again on Easter Monday.

"It will get milder as the holiday weekend goes on but it looks as if we'll have unsettled weather going on into next week."

Around two million Britons will flee the country over the Easter weekend, with Spain and its islands the most popular spots for a break away, said travel organisation Abta.