EUROPE yesterday huddled against a continent wide cold spell which has killed at least 90 in the past week, brought road chaos and air traffic delays and even caused the Venetian lagoon to freeze over.
In Russia, up to 300 people were freed after being trapped for, days in a tunnel by avalanches in the southerly Caucasus mountains. Rescuers had worked since Friday to clear the snow around the entrance to the 2 1/2 mile Roksky tunnel linking North Ossetia with the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia. But after rescue workers had cleared away some 12 miles of snow blocking the highway, fresh showfalls led to new avalanches yesterday.
Itar Tass news agency said two women had given birth while trapped in the tunnel and one new born child had died of the cold. Some of the motorists had refused to leave in case their cars are stolen or looted, agencies said.
Tass news agency reported 10 people dead in Russia with 245 in hospital with frostbite.
In Bucharest 24 people - mainly elderly, homeless and beggars - were reported to have died. Bulgaria was also badly hit, with nine people found frozen in snow storms on Sunday, bringing the toll there to 19 since Christmas Eve. Poland reported its coldest weather for 10 years, with 28 deaths recorded in the past week.
The harsh conditions extended as far south as the Valencia region in Spain where a 54 year old man was found dead from the cold in a makeshift shack.
In Italy's Alpine north, temperatures were down to minus 30 Celsius (-22 Fahrenheit), although tempere, by bright sunshine. The lagoon on which Venice is built froze over and the Adriatic resorts of Rimini and Ancona saw snow for the first time in years.
Snow and ice also paralysed much of central and southern Italy, with people using skis to get around the Umbrian capital of Perugia.
Some 40 flights had to be cancelled yesterday morning from Frankfurt airport because of snow on the runways. Ice also brought shipping to a halt on the Elbe river in eastern Germany, on the Main Danube canal and on the Danube itself up to Germany's border with, Austria.
Hungary saw temperatures equal 76 year old record lows of minus 29 Celsius compared to the normal mid winter average of minus 3. Five people - homeless or drunk - were reported dead from the cold. In Austria, two people died from the cold.
The weather claimed more victims in France at the weekend, including a 74 year old man who refused to swap his unheated caravan for a flat.
In Britain forecasters yesterday warned of plunging temperatures, biting winds and heavy snow. Travel organisations urged motorists to stay at home.
Roads in east Kent were particularly hard hit as, black ice and drifting snow caused problems for, motorists. A spokeswoman for the Automobile Association said it was taking about 50 breakdown calls an hour. "There have been hundreds of accidents," she added, "with people just sliding off the road on ice or just getting, caught in drifts."