Europe winter sparks travel chaos

UK: Europe was blasted by more snow and ice on Friday amid a brutal winter that has caused travel chaos across the continent.

Britons were enduring their coldest night yet of the freezing winter, with temperatures expected to fall below the previous low point of minus 18 degrees Celsius (zero degrees Fahrenheit).

"Temperatures will struggle to rise above freezing across most of the country by day, with severe and penetrating frosts at night," said chief forecaster Richard Young at the Met Office.

The conditions also raised fears for energy supplies in Britain, suffering its worst winter for decades, as gas was cut off on Thursday to almost 100 major firms in a bid to avert a crisis. The beleaguered Eurostar train service linking France, Britain and Belgium, faced further disruptions after a train got stuck in the Channel Tunnel.

Air travellers in Europe waited anxiously to see if flights would depart after services in France, Britain and Ireland were cancelled on Thursday as treacherous conditions kept planes firmly on the runway..

At Orly airport, south of Paris, outgoing flights were cancelled or delayed, and incoming ones diverted, a spokesman for Aeroports de Paris told AFP. In Britain, budget airline easyJet axed around 80 flights citing weather conditions, mostly from Gatwick airport, and British Airways said it had cancelled services and others were delayed. In Ireland, there were flight cancellations and delays at Dublin airport..

Eurostar's troubles continued Thursday when a train travelling between Brussels and London got stuck in the tunnel for two hours, and passengers eventually had to be towed to safety.

French railway operator SNCF the biggest shareholder in Eurostar blamed the problem on a signal failure in the train driver's cab. The disruptions came as Eurostar was already reeling from bad publicity after its pre-Christmas breakdown. LONDON, AFP