SOME 30 people were injured during a 50-car pile-up caused by black ice near Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris yesterday.
A slip road near the airport became blocked at 6am after a night of freezing rain across northern France caused a number of crashes.
By mid-morning, there were 210km of traffic jams in the Ile-de-France region, which includes the French capital, and traffic was disrupted at the airport until midday.
Icy condition and freezing fog also caused dozens of road incidents across Germany yesterday morning and one fatality on the A4 motorway in Saxony.
A swift return of winter weather caused almost 500 incidents alone in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia yesterday morning.
Some 70 commuters were injured in rush-hour crashes, 12 of them seriously.
In Hamburg, some 160 incidents were recorded by police yesterday morning.
Meterologists said the cold snap was not here to stay in Germany, and should disappear in the coming days.
However, rain was expected to freeze again in the early hours of this morning.
“The wintry picture which on Wednesday morning many Germans endured will clear up more and more in the coming days,” wrote meteorologist Simon Trippler in a statement.
“A return of winter in Germany is not in store for the weather for now. As a result, only a visit to a high mountain will help to be able to experience winter.”