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Snow causes travel chaos across northern Europe
AFP - Friday, January 8
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A motorist digs a car out from under the snow in Pathhead, Scotland. Eurostar passengers faced new winter misery when another high-speed train broke down in the Channel Tunnel as heavy snow brought down powerlines, leaving thousands without electricity in Britain.
LONDON (AFP) - – Eurostar passengers faced new winter misery on Thursday with another high-speed train breaking down in the Channel Tunnel, while heavy snow also left thousands in Britain with no electricity.
Across the rest of northern Europe, one of the most brutal winters in decades caused more travel mayhem with scores of flights cancelled and many roads blocked.
Overnight temperatures dropped to minus 18 degrees Celsius (zero degrees Fahrenheit) in Woodford outside Manchester, northwest England, and in Benson, southern England. Glasgow saw minus nine degrees Celsius, while London fell to minus three.
No major British airports reported closures Thursday, with runways open following a day of disruption Wednesday.
But budget airline easyJet scrapped around 80 flights "as a result of severe weather conditions," largely in and out of London Gatwick airport south of the British capital.
British Airways said it had cancelled a number of flights and was experiencing delays due to icy conditions at both Gatwick and London Heathrow.
Dublin airport, which closed for several hours on Wednesday, was operating normally but there were a number of flight cancellations and delays as some airlines continued to experience knock on effects.
At Orly, south of Paris, outgoing flights were cancelled or delayed, while incoming ones were diverted, a spokesman for Aeroports de Paris told AFP.
Eurostar faced fresh embarrassment on Thursday when a Brussels to London train had to be towed out of the tunnel after being stuck for around two hours. Related article: Eurostar passengers face travel misery
Arctic temperatures were blamed for the breakdown last month of several Eurostar trains in the tunnel between Britain and France, which sparked a three-day suspension of the service.
"At first they told us that it was an engine problem," Jonattan Lurasin, 26, from Liege in Belgium, told AFP at London's Saint Pancras International station. "They tried to restart two or three times, but it didn't work."
Eurostar spokesman Bram Smets said the cause of the latest breakdown was not immediately known, and warned of delays.
"We are not allowing any train to enter the tunnel at present, they are waiting. We don't want any (more) trains to be blocked in the tunnel if we don't know what happened," he told AFP in Brussels.
Even before the new incident, Eurostar had already cancelled four of its services for a second straight day, due to disruptions caused by cold weather speed limits.
Meanwhile electricians were working round the clock to restore current to around 5,000 homes in southern England which were left in the dark when snow brought down power lines, said EDF Energy.
Britain's Met Office weather service said the cold spell was the worst since 1981 and warned of more to come.
Britain's biggest employers' organisation, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), said the wintry weather had caused "massive disruption" for companies already suffering from the sharp economic downturn.
Children however lapped up the chance to spend another day playing in the snow as hundreds of schools that had been due to reopen in both Britain and Ireland after the Christmas break remained closed.
Much of southern France was put on alert for further snowfall and icy conditions, as snow caused traffic problems in Paris, Grenoble, Bordeaux and the north.
In Austria authorities are on standby amid forecasts of some 50 centimetres of snow at the weekend in low-lying parts of the country, normally spared much of the regular snowfalls in its Alpine areas.
Ireland was also hit by severe weather not seen for almost 50 years, with forecasters warning that a thaw was unlikely to come for six or seven days.
Prime Minister Brian Cowen said the military had mobilised staff and equipment in case they were needed and the government's national emergency committee would meet daily until the severe weather abated.
"Weather of this severity and duration has not been seen since 1963 in many parts of Ireland," Cowen said.
On Thursday, Norway was among the coldest countries, with temperatures ranging from minus 15 degrees Celsius to minus 40 degrees Celsius. Oslo had a reduced bus service as engine oil froze, while ice kept ferries from sailing.
The cold snap also hit train services in the Netherlands.
Meanwhile, torrential rain hit parts of Italy and officials feared the swollen River Tiber could threaten Rome in the coming days.
Thousands of hectares (acres) of land were also flooded in northern Albania and authorities were obliged to open the sluices on reservoirs for fear of dams bursting.
The interior ministry said hundreds of houses, particularly in the city of Shkoder, were under water and at least 3,000 people had to be evacuated.
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