Europe’s cold snap is claiming lives, as countries from Ukraine to Italy struggle with temperatures that have plunged to record lows.
And more cold weather is forecast.
Entire villages were cut off in parts of eastern Europe, trapping thousands, while road, air and rail links were severed and gas consumption shot up during what has been the severest winter in decades in some regions.
In Ukraine, tens of thousands headed to shelters to escape the freeze that emergency services said has killed 63 people – most of them frozen to death in the streets, some succumbing to the hypothermia later in hospitals.
Nine more people died in Poland as the mercury dropped to -32˚C in some parts, bringing the country’s toll to 29 since the fearsome spell of cold weather started last week.
The Met Office in London warned that the cold snap was set to continue in many areas, with more snow expected in Kiev overnight, though the temperatures could rise from their recent lows.
Snow was also forecast in many parts of Britain over the weekend.
Homeless people in the region are at the highest risk, warned the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
“Although we expect harsh winters in this part of the world, this current freeze has come towards the end of a mild winter,” said Zlatko Kovac, IFRC representative for Belarus and Ukraine.
“Homeless people have been caught unawares and unprepared. They don’t follow long-range forecasts and are extremely vulnerable.”
Red Cross Societies have helped with hot meals, warm clothing and blankets. The organisation said it had released more than €100,000 from its Disaster Relief Emergency Fund to boost the aid effort.
Russian gas giant Gazprom, meanwhile, said it had boosted deliveries to Europe, while several European countries reported drops in Russian supplies, with operators in Austria and Slovakia both reporting falls of 30 per cent.
Ukraine – the transit point for most Russian gas bound for Europe – denied it was taking a greater than usual share of the gas.
Tens of thousands of people in Ukraine have sought help in more than 2,000 temporary shelters as temperatures fell to -33˚C in the Carpathians and minus 27 in the capital Kiev.
In Romania, eight people died overnight, bringing the country’s overall toll to 22. Schools remained closed in some parts. In Bulgaria, at least 10 people have died, according to media. With parts of the Danube river freezing, authorities moved some vessels to ports further away to protect them from the advancing ice.
In Latvia, 10 people have died around the capital Riga alone, with no figures available for the rest of the country. In neighbouring Lithuania a 55-year-old homeless man became the ninth victim of the deep chill.
In north and central Italy, hundreds were trapped overnight on trains as freezing temperatures and heavy snowfalls caused widespread transport chaos.
The cold has so far killed an infant in Sicily, a 76-year-old in Parma and a homeless man in Milan during what forecasters say is the coldest weather in Italy in 27 years.
In France, 41 of the 101 regions were on alert for snow or deep cold. In Paris, the army set aside nearly 600 places in military buildings to shelter the homeless from the freeze.
Two people died in Austria, and seven perished in Serbia, where 11,500 others were trapped mostly in remote mountain villages inaccessible by road.
Five have died in the Czech Republic and two each in Slovakia and Greece.
In Belgrade, homeless people unable to secure one of the 140 spots in the capital’s sole shelter took refuge in trolley buses and trams.