At least 64 killed by cold snap in Russia

PanARMENIAN.Net - At least 64 people died of hypothermia across Russia in January from the freezing weather gripping most of the country, Maxim Topilin, a deputy health minister, said on Friday, February 3.

About 1,400 people requested medical assistance nationwide, with 779 of them admitted to hospitals, Topilin said, adding that the figures only include data from 50 out of 83 Russian regions.

The current temperatures in Russia are 7-12 degrees below normal. The cold snap even extends into the normally warm North Caucasus with temperatures there plummeting to minus 20 degrees Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit). Siberia and the Far East, no strangers to cold winter weather, are currently in a deep freeze at minus 40 degrees Celsius.

A Moscow health official said five people died overnight in the Russian capital, where low temperatures in different parts of the city dipped to between minus 23 and minus 27 degrees Celsius, RIA Novosti reported.

Europe's cold snap has already claimed 164 lives, with Ukrainian authorities recording 38 more deaths due to a severe cold spell, bringing the total over the past week to 101.

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.