Cold claims more lives in Europe, airline services hit

PanARMENIAN.Net - Bitterly cold weather sweeping across Europe claimed more victims on Sunday, Feb 5, and brought widespread disruption to transport services, with warnings that the chilling temperatures would remain into next week, Reuters reports.

Hundreds have lost their lives in eastern Europe as freezing weather sweeps across the continent westwards, while major airports warned that services would be delayed or cancelled.

Steven Keates, a weather forecaster at Britain's Met Office, said the severe wintry conditions were expected to last, and spread to other areas. "(It will be) perhaps turning increasingly unsettled across southern and eastern Europe, so that will probably bring a risk of snow for Italy across to Greece and up round the Balkan countries," he said.

9 more deaths from cold were registered in Ukraine overnight, emergencies services said on Sunday, taking the death toll to 131 from a nine-day cold spell which has brought freezing temperatures to the ex-Soviet republic.

Airline services from Britain and France were hit as the chilling weather moved west, prompting severe weather warnings to be issued across much of both countries.

London's Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, said it would run just 70 percent of normal services on Sunday as more than 15cm (6 inches) of snow fell in parts of England overnight and temperatures dropped well to almost -10 Celsius.

London's Gatwick Airport said it had received 8 cm of snow overnight but it had remained open, and would be running all scheduled flights. However, many of Britain's other airports were forced to shut runways overnight and warned there could be further disruption on Sunday.

Rail services were affected and many roads were left impassable, and sections of motorways near London were brought to a standstill, forcing some divers to abandon their vehicles. Police said the main roads into the southern port of Dover had also been closed for a while.

The first winter snow fell in Paris overnight coating the Eiffel Tower, and more showers due throughout Sunday. The French capital's main airports were also expecting problems and advised passengers to check with the airlines before travelling.

Meanwhile the death toll rose to four, after a 12-year old boy died of hypothermia on Saturday after falling into a frozen pond in eastern France and a homeless person was found dead in the northeast.