Deadly European cold snap spreads

A cold snap that killed 30 people in Ukraine over the past five days yesterday spread to swathes of eastern and central Europe with record lows in Bulgaria and heavy snow in Switzerland and parts of Italy.

Emergency services in Ukraine said most of the dead were homeless people who froze to death on the streets, four were found in their homes, and more than 600 people sought medical help for frostbite and hypothermia.

Authorities opened 1,590 shelters to provide food and heat and were planning to set up 150 more as temperatures plunged to minus 28 degrees Celsius (minus 18 degrees Fahrenheit) in some regions.

Police in Poland reported five new deaths yesterday, bringing the overall toll for January to 27 as overnight temperatures dipped to minus 30 degrees Celsius.

In Vilnius, the capital of neighbouring Lithuania, one homeless man was found dead yesterday, bringing the death toll there to eight since Saturday.

In the Czech Republic, a woman was found frozen to death in a garden shed in the capital Prague, police said.

Meanwhile, two died in Romania, raising the death toll to eight since last Thursday, the health ministry said.

Weather temperatures plunged to minus 29 degrees Celsius in central Romania on Monday night, sending gas consumption to a record high and forcing a huge increase in gas imports, an official said.

“In Bucharest and across the country, consumption has reached a historic high,” from 57 million cubic metres per day earlier this month to 69 million on Monday, economy ministry official Claudiu Stafie told a press conference.

Mr Stafie said imports have risen day after day and were expected to stand at 17.5 million cubic metres yesterday and hit 20 million today.

Neighbouring Bulgaria reported record lows and the Danube started to freeze over, threatening shipping.

Eighteen towns, including the capital Sofia, recorded their coldest January 31 since 100 years ago, with the mercury dropping as low as minus 29 degrees Celsius in Kneja, in the northeast, according to the national weather service.