BLIZZARDS, gale-force winds and snow storms over the past few days have caused several deaths across Europe.
Two people died in road accidents and thousands were left without electricity as blizzards swept Britain yesterday.
A lorry driver was killed on the snow-bound M6 after stopping to telephone for help for drivers injured in a pile-up. The man, who has not yet been identified, stopped where a transporter carrying 400 sheep had been hit by an articulated lorry. As he returned to his lorry, he was hit by another lorry, which then jack-knifed and collided with the others. One lorry driver was taken to hospital with a collapsed lung while another suffered minor injuries.
In Shropshire, the driver of a suspected stolen car was killed when he crashed while escaping from police at 70 mph in falling snow. Police said he had ignored requests to stop.
In north Wales, over 1,000 homes were without electricity last night, with the service unlikely to be restored until this morning.
Scores of minor accidents were reported across Britain as motorists went to work. Vehicles were abandoned and the Automobile Association said it had received about 40,000 calls for assistance yesterday, nearly double the daily average.
Motoring conditions In Britain were expected to remain bad overnight, with snow, sleet, heavy rain and flooding continuing to cause havoc. Some routes in the north of England were blocked by snow-drifts of eight feet.
Blizzards also made driving conditions difficult in central Scotland, with a spate of minor accidents causing lengthy hold-ups.
In France, a lorry driver was found dead in his cab yesterday on a motorway blocked by bad weather in eastern France. The 40-year-old man's body was found by police who noticed his truck on the side of the road near Besancon in the Jura mountains. He had apparently spent the night there. The exact cause of death was not given.
In Italy, rainstorms in the northern part of the country overnight on Monday caused a traffic accident in which five people were killed. The victims were travelling in a minibus which missed a turn along a road in the Brescia region and skidded off the road into a lake. Only one of the passengers was saved.
In Venice, water flooding St Mark's Square was receding yesterday as the storm that has lashed northern Italy receded. The square, which was covered with 50 centimetres of water on Monday, had 22 centimetres yesterday.