Cold spell in Europe: 28 dead in Central Europe, chaos in transport

Written by Sandeep Nehra

Snow and ice on Thursday rampant in Europe, where the cold has already killed 28 people in Poland, Czech Republic and Lithuania, wreaking havoc in transport.

The cold wave that hit central Europe was eighteen dead in Poland, six and four in the Czech Republic in Lithuania, officials said Thursday.

In Poland, ten people died of cold for 24 hours in different parts of the country after eight deaths on Tuesday, police said. The victims are mostly homeless men, often under the influence of alcohol. Temperatures are lowered into the north-east at -17 degrees centigrade, after reaching a record high Tuesday of -33 ° in this region.

The Warsaw-Okecie Airport was working intermittently on Thursday morning and several flights were canceled.

Czech Republic, two new bodies of men froze to death, probably homeless aged about 45 and 55, were discovered in Prague, police said Thursday. This brings to six the number of victims for 24 hours, according to figures available.

The Prague-Ruzyne airport, the busiest in Central Europe, was closed for six hours in the night between Wednesday and Thursday and about forty flights were canceled.

In Lithuania, the cold has killed four people. The body of a man under the influence of alcohol was discovered in Vilnius, said Thursday the emergency department. Another man in his sixties was also a victim of the cold in Siauliai (north), while two homeless people, a man and a woman died of cold during the weekend.

In Britain, the partial paralysis of transport that lasts for several days, gives rise to a growing exasperation.

Gatwick Airport, south of London, which was originally scheduled to reopen Thursday morning, was eventually remain closed another day, the tracks are still impassable. Ditto for the Edinburgh, Scotland, who hoped to work again, however, later in the day. Eurostar traffic is also disrupted, about 50% of high-speed trains planned Thursday between Paris and London and between London and Brussels have been canceled.

For motorists, the situation was no better, several sections of motorway had to be wholly or partially closed due to snow. More than 11,000 incidents were counted Wednesday on British roads more slippery, a number never reached in this time of year.

In France, it is also a mess in transport, with hundreds of stranded motorists on the roads by snow and ice and forced to spend the night in their cars or in makeshift accommodation sites. After the central region is the West and the suburbs that were worst affected by Thursday’s snowfall, which have formed in places thick layers of over 20 cm.

In the morning, hundreds of trucks were still stuck in Brittany and Normandy (west) on icy roads or storage areas. In Paris Roissy airport, 25% of flights were canceled Thursday and 10% at Orly airport.

In Germany, Frankfurt International Airport (west) operated normally on Thursday morning but had to cancel some flights because of the closure of other European airports.

The south of the old continent was not immune to the cold snap.

Regions of north-western Spain and south-east are on high alert for risk of snow and cold winds, according to the Meteorological Agency.

In Portugal, the northern half of the country was still under the snow Thursday. Dozens of roads were still cut in the central and northern Iraq, where many schools remained closed.

Finally, northern Italy was shivering with freezing temperatures particularly in Bolzano and Milan (north), while a relative softness settled in Rome (11 °C) or in Palermo, Sicily (14 °C ).

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