Europe's cold snap claims 164 lives

PanARMENIAN.Net - Europe's cold snap has already claimed 164 lives.

According to The Associated Press, Ukrainian authorities have recorded 38 more deaths due to a severe cold spell, bringing the total over the past week to 101.

The Emergency Situations Ministry said on its website Friday, Feb 3, that more than 1,200 other people have been hospitalized with hypothermia and frostbite as temperatures in some parts of the country sank to minus 32 Celsius (minus 26 Fahrenheit).

Authorities have closed schools and colleges and set up nearly 3,000 heating and food shelters across the country. Health officials instructed hospitals to refrain from discharging homeless patients, even after treatment is finished, to save them from the cold.

Still, experts said the high death toll reflects the country's inability to deal with the homeless. Nine more people died in Poland as the mercury dropped to minus 32 Celsius (minus 25.6 Fahrenheit) in some parts, bringing the country's toll to 29 since the fearsome spell of cold weather started last week, police said.

The Met Office in London warned that the cold snap was set to continue in many areas.

Berlin would have snow Friday with temperatures hitting minus ten Celsius overnight, the Met Office forecast.