MAJOR TRAFFIC disruption continued in the United Kingdom yesterday following more snowfalls, but major airports and the troubled Eurostar cross-channel train service made considerable progress in dealing with thousands of delayed passengers.
Across Europe, more than 100 people have now died in the cold snap, with temperatures plummeting and snowfall causing chaos from Moscow to Milan.
In Poland, where temperatures have dropped to as low as minus 20 degrees in some areas, police appealed for tip-offs about people spotted lying down outside. At least 42 people, most of them homeless, died over the weekend.
In Ukraine, 27 people have frozen to death since the thermometer dropped last week. Authorities in Romania said 11 people had succumbed to the chill, and in the Czech Republic the toll was 12. In Germany, where temperatures have fallen to minus 33 degrees in certain parts, at least seven people are known to have lost their lives in the freezing weather.
Dozens of flights at the UK’s biggest airports, including Gatwick, Heathrow and Stansted, were delayed or cancelled, though the airports were open last night but affected by delays suffered by inbound flights.
Luton airport, which was shut overnight, opened at 6.30am, but a number of flights were cancelled and others delayed, while its main user, EasyJet, said it will not be able to carry all of its booked passengers before Christmas.
Eurostar services reopened at 7.30am yesterday at Saint Pancras International in London, but much of the queue had been cleared by the mid-afternoon. Thousands of would-be passengers had already found another way home.
Initially, the company, which has suffered major damage to its reputation, said it would first carry passengers who had been due to travel on Saturday and Sunday, but by lunchtime those who had tickets for later were being allowed onboard.
The Automobile Association, which said Monday had been its busiest day in a decade, clashed with UK local authorities, claiming that some of them are “rationing” grit because they have not got enough stockpiled.
The association’s president, Edmund King, said some major roads had not been gritted “at all”, while councils should have “sooner” and “more thoroughly” everywhere – charges that were rejected by the Local Government Association.
In Scotland, nearly all trains from Glasgow’s main station were cancelled after trains got stuck in the snow. More snow is expected in the northeast and southwest of Scotland overnight.
Aberdeen’s airport was forced to close twice during the day, while police in Grampian said weather conditions had caused havoc on the roads. In Wales, drivers were delayed after the new Severn Bridge had to close for some hours because of falling ice.
On the Isle of Lewis, a 35-year-old man is believed to have frozen to death in his garden on Saturday, after he returned home from a night out. In Bradford, a man was found dead in a frozen city-centre pond. – (Additional reporting: Guardian service)