Thousands Shiver In Europe's Big Chill
Date: 08-Jan-09
Country: FRANCE
Author: Reporting by Catherine Hornby, Martina Fuchs, Jean-Francois
Rosnoblet, Anna Mudeva, Maja Zuvela and Benet Koleka
Thousands Shiver In Europe's Big Chill Photo: Jean-Paul Pelissier
Heavy
snowfall in Marseille forced the international airport to close and
paralysed all train and bus traffic on Wednesday in the country's
second-biggest city.
Photo: Jean-Paul Pelissier
PARIS - Temperatures plunged to record lows in Germany and heavy snow forced
normally sunny Marseille to close its international airport as freezing
winter weather gripped much of Europe on Wednesday.
Port authorities in the Dutch city of Rotterdam deployed an icebreaking ship
for the first time 12 years, while in Britain forecasters issued a new
severe weather warning.
In the Balkans, thousands shivered in their homes after gas supplies to
southeastern Europe were cut as a result of a contract dispute between
Russia and Ukraine, reminding many of the freezing winters they endured in
the wars of the 1990s.
"It all reminds me of the war when we were freezing, except there is no
shooting," said Hilmo Celjo, who stood in a queue near the Bosnian capital
Sarajevo to buy wood and coal.
Temperatures sank to record lows in parts of Germany overnight. A weather
station in the eastern state of Saxony said the coldest spot was -27.7
degrees Celsius.
Thick snow has covered much of the country and icebreakers were at work on
several waterways, including the River Elbe in eastern Germany
"I'm wearing all my warmest clothes, I've got two pairs of socks on.
Otherwise drinking hot cocoa helps. We've just been sitting in McDonald's,"
Cologne resident Florian Densing told Reuters Television.
A 77-year-old woman was found dead outside in the eastern city of Weimar on
Monday. She appeared to have frozen to death after she had gone missing from
her old people's home.
In France, temperatures dropped as low as -16 degrees Celsius on Wednesday
in the north of country, while 40 cm of snow fell in the Marseille region in
just a few hours.
Authorities blocked access to nearby motorways and 1,000 motorists were
stuck in their cars awaiting rescue services.
Marseille's main Saint Charles train station was paralyzed as signaling
froze. School buses were canceled in the entire Bouches du Rhone area, where
Marseille is located.
France's Secretary of State for Transport, Dominique Bussereau, demanded an
investigation into "unacceptable" chaos at Charles de Gaulle, where hundreds
of flights were canceled and thousands of passengers stranded earlier in the
week.
In Albania, remote areas were blocked by heavy snow and isolated villages
were being supplied with food by helicopters.
A religious ceremony in which believers plunge into an icy river to retrieve
a holy cross was canceled because of the cold. A hunter killed two wolves
which had ventured near the northern Albanian town of Kukes.
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