Cold spell batters Europe

Fresh snowfalls swept northern Europe yesterday, causing misery for travellers as airports remain closed, roads were blocked and Eurostar international rail services were cancelled.

Eurostar, which runs trains between London and Paris and Brussels, cancelled more than 20 trains yesterday and advised customers to postpone their journeys while Geneva international airport only reopened yesterday morning after heavy snow caused it to close for a day and a half. However, its schedule was still subject to heavy delays.

Dozens of flights were cancelled or delayed yesterday at airports in Paris, Prague and Frankfurt – one of Europe’s key air hubs.

The freezing weather has claimed 28 lives across central Europe this week, including 18 deaths, mostly of homeless men, since Tuesday in Poland, where temperatures plunged to minus 33 degrees Celsius.

Snow storms that have swept the continent in recent days intensified in many places yesterday, including London, where landmarks such as the British Museum were covered in a layer of white. The unseasonable cold snap has caused Britain to grind to a halt, with thousands of schools closed and commuters stranded as rail services were cancelled and icy roads deemed unsafe.

Gatwick Airport, Britain’s second busiest airport after Heath-row, closed for a second consecutive day, while Edinburgh Airport was also shut.

In Germany, Berlin yesterday woke up to more than ten centimetres of snow, while almost 40 centimetres fell in Gera in the southeast, causing disruptions on train services and the closure of numerous roads.

In the northern French region of Normandy, snow measured 60 centimetres near the city of Cherbourg, the biggest snowfall in more than 40 years. And in the western Balkans, heavy rain caused flooding in Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, with more than 1,000 people evacuated from their homes, local media said.

While most of Europe shivered, residents of the Bulgarian capital Sofia enjoyed a seasonal heatwave with temperatures topping 20 degrees Celsius, while unseasonably high temperatures were also recorded in Greece.

Still yesterday a five-mile-wide band of lake-effect snow dumped more than two feet of snow and closed a 16-mile stretch of the New York State Thruway in Buffalo. Some drivers on the thruway remained trapped in their cars for more than 15 hours. Earlier in the morning heavy winds and rain hit the downtown section of Brooklyn borough of New York City as winds lashed the East Coast with heavy rain and severe weather that knocked out power and caused some damage.