Ten dead in European winter storms

[senorpepr]

PARIS (AFP) - Police closed highways, trains were held up and flights cancelled as winter storms battered parts of Europe which have left at least 10 people dead since the weekend.

Romania has been worst hit by blizzard conditions, the worst snow storms there in 40 years according to meteorologists, while Britain and France were bracing for heavy snowfalls creating potentially chaotic transport conditions.

Two more people died Monday in Romania -- one of them a 16-year-old girl -- and some 60 towns and villages in the northeast remained without electricity. Five others had died in Romania on the weekend due to the bad weather, and three died in Turkey.

British Airways cancelled at least 20 flights bound for continental Europe and the United States from London airports Heathrow and Gatwick, as high winds and snow showers began sweeping south from Northern Ireland and Scotland, sending temperatures plummeting.

"There is a risk of snow everywhere, with the heaviest snow showers likely to be in Scotland and northeast England," said a spokeswoman for the British weather service.

The mercury was expected to drop to minus six degrees Celsius (21 Fahrenheit) in parts of Northern Ireland overnight Monday. Seventeen centimeters (seven inches) of snow have already fallen in northern Scotland, with more predicted.

In France, cold weather and sleet lead to delays of up to two hours at Paris' two main airports, Charles de Gaulle and Orly, while train service was disrupted between the western city of Rennes and Paris.

The national weather service warned intense snowfalls could hit many parts of the country. Snow was expected from Normandy to the Massif Central mountains. Meteo France issued a level-three (out of four) storm warning for the Paris area, which was effective through Tuesday midday.

In Switzerland, heavy snowfall disrupted travel in the Geneva and Lausanne area in the southwest. Geneva airport was closed for two hours early Monday, delaying 40 flights, a spokesman said.