Five dead after icy cold snap grips swathes of Europe, hundreds of flights, trains cancelled

Freezing weather is gripping swathes of Europe, with snow and icy conditions forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights in the Netherlands and leading to the deaths of five people on French roads.

All domestic rail services in the Netherlands were suspended early on Tuesday after an IT outage compounded ⁠disruption across the country’s rail network. Trains began running in parts of the country later in the morning, but problems persisted in the region around Amsterdam, a popular tourist destination.

High-speed Eurostar services to Paris from Amsterdam were either cancelled or running late. At the city’s Schiphol airport, over 400 flights were cancelled, most of them by the Dutch unit of Air France-KLM, as the winter weather crippled traffic at one of Europe’s main transit hubs ‌for a fifth day.

Spanish national Javier Sepulveda was stuck at Schiphol trying to get back to his home in Norway for the third ‍day. He said he started queuing at the KLM help desk at 6.30am local time on Tuesday and that six hours later he was still not close to reaching the front of the line.

“I can only describe the situation ... as chaotic, insane,” the 39-year-old said.

In Germany, temperatures fell well below minus 10 C in the south and east early on Tuesday.

Large parts of the country were covered in snow, including regions close to the North Sea, where ‌thick layers of snow have become increasingly uncommon. Meteorologists forecast a storm to hit the country on Friday, with heavy snowfall expected in the north and east.

In France, a prolonged cold snap saw freezing temperatures overnight after snow across the Paris region and large parts of the country on Monday. Six small airports ‍were shut in the west and north of France as Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot urged people to travel as little as possible on the roads and to work from home to avoid hazardous conditions.

Five people have been killed in road accidents linked to the freezing conditions since Monday, BFMTV and other French media reported.

Meanwhile, in the UK, the Meteorological Office on Monday said winter weather hazards could continue throughout the week for most of the country. It issued an amber warning, its second-most severe after red, for snow in central Scotland.

Heavy snow and rain have also caused havoc across the Western Balkans this week, closing roads, cutting power and causing rivers to flood. A woman died in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo on Monday after a tree overburdened with wet snow fell on ‍her.