Bitterly cold weather sweeps across Europe as hundreds die
Source: Agencies |
February 6, 2012, Monday
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BITTERLY cold weather sweeping across Europe claimed more victims yesterday, brought widespread disruption to transport services, and left thousands without power with warnings that low temperatures would continue this week.
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 still be very cold, maybe not quite the exceptional temperatures we've seen last week, but still very cold," he said.
"(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."
A state of emergency was declared in Bosnia after the cold snap claimed its seventh victim, and avalanches and strong winds cut off hundreds of villages.
Helicopters were needed to deliver aid packages to mountainous areas and take the sick to hospital.
Greece also declared an emergency situation in the western Peloponnese peninsula after heavy rain caused flooding and an 82-year old woman drowned while trying to escape her house.
Nine more deaths from freezing temperatures were recorded in Ukraine at the weekend, emergency services said, taking the death toll to 131 from a nine-day cold spell, the most severe in the country for six years with night temperatures down to minus 33 Celsius in parts.
Many of the dead were homeless people with bodies being found in the streets under snow, in rivers and in doorways. More than 3,000 heated tents have been set up around the country to provide makeshift accommodation for the homeless.
In Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk asked local authorities to waive the ban on admitting inebriated individuals to homeless shelters as eight more people died taking the death toll to 53, PAP news agency reported.
The extreme cold also caused the death of at least three people in Hungary, national news agency MTI said, and at least five people froze to death in Lithuania over the weekend as the temperature fell below -30 Celsius overnight.
Transport networks were also badly hit as the chilling weather moved west across Europe.
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 still be very cold, maybe not quite the exceptional temperatures we've seen last week, but still very cold," he said.
"(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."
A state of emergency was declared in Bosnia after the cold snap claimed its seventh victim, and avalanches and strong winds cut off hundreds of villages.
Helicopters were needed to deliver aid packages to mountainous areas and take the sick to hospital.
Greece also declared an emergency situation in the western Peloponnese peninsula after heavy rain caused flooding and an 82-year old woman drowned while trying to escape her house.
Nine more deaths from freezing temperatures were recorded in Ukraine at the weekend, emergency services said, taking the death toll to 131 from a nine-day cold spell, the most severe in the country for six years with night temperatures down to minus 33 Celsius in parts.
Many of the dead were homeless people with bodies being found in the streets under snow, in rivers and in doorways. More than 3,000 heated tents have been set up around the country to provide makeshift accommodation for the homeless.
In Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk asked local authorities to waive the ban on admitting inebriated individuals to homeless shelters as eight more people died taking the death toll to 53, PAP news agency reported.
The extreme cold also caused the death of at least three people in Hungary, national news agency MTI said, and at least five people froze to death in Lithuania over the weekend as the temperature fell below -30 Celsius overnight.
Transport networks were also badly hit as the chilling weather moved west across Europe.
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