Cold snap causes widespread travel disruption

PARIS, Friday (AFP) Europe braced Friday for more freezing temperatures after blizzards swept through northern and central European countries, disrupting air, road and rail traffic and causing widespread power cuts.

Much of the continent was battened down against the harsh weather, the coldest December in a decade in Britain, where temperatures plunged to minus 11 Celsius (12 Fahrenheit) in Scotland and northeastern England.

France reported a second death Thursday from freezing temperatures after snowstorms left thousands of people trapped in their cars in sub-freezing temperatures this week.

Road conditions remained icy and dangerous in many areas, but the only serious disruptions were in western Brittany and around the Channel port of Calais in the north.

A sea search was on overnight off Calvados on France's Normandy coast after a yacht captain fell overboard in "difficult conditions", the local maritime authority said.

His two crewmates sounded the alarm late Thursday and an air and sea search began.

Most of the country has gone on winter alert, opening extra shelters to protect homeless people from the cold, which claimed a second victim overnight.

Snow was likely to blanket many parts of Britain throughout Friday, weather forecasters said. Newspapers reported that a man sleeping rough had been found frozen to death in West Bromwich, central England, where temperatures fell to -7C (23F).

High-speed train services from Paris to Lille, as well as Thalys and Eurostar links to London and Brussels, were coping with delays of up to 40 minutes, as drivers were told to reduce their speed. Travellers at airports in Prague, Florence and Charleroi in southern Belgium experienced serious flight disruptions due to heavy snows and swirling winds.

Across Scandinavia, snowstorms cut power lines and disrupted rail and road traffic, with the situation expected to worsen in some places.

Sixteen people were injured in traffic accidents on icy roads in Finland, where more snow was expected in the south.

A snowstorm also swept Denmark, causing train delays, truck accidents and blocking several smaller roads, the Ritzau news agency reported. Police have warned Danes not to take to the roads in the east of the country.

Traffic was also reported to be near normal in Germany, which has been coated in white from north to south, with 90 centimetres (three feet) of snow measured on Mount Brocken in the central Harz mountain range.

In Turkey, where snow and ice claimed four lives and cut road access to several thousand villages this week, temperatures dropped to minus 33 Celsius (minus 28 Fahrenheit) in some eastern mountain regions.