Europe, US hit by cold wave as snow derails travel plans, shopping

Eurostar has suspended its train services indefinitely, stranding upto 31,000 passengers while a blizzard has blanketed the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern US states in snow, crippling travel and leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power.

Snowstorms and subfreezing temperatures have battered Europe, killing 29 people in Poland alone and wreaking havoc on air, train and car travelers from the Nordics to Italy on the last weekend before Christmas. France's civil aviation authority ordered the cancellation of 40 percent of flights out of Paris' Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports Sunday through mid-afternoon. So far the cold snap has been deadliest in Poland, where 29 people froze to death on Saturday and Sunday as temperatures fell as low as -20 C (-4 F) overnight in some places. In Austria, authorities reported three people froze to death as they tried to make their way home after evenings out. Two were found in the southern province of Styria, where temperatures fell below -20 C and a third near the city of Salzburg.

An Associated Press report from Washington says a blizzard has blanketed the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern US states in snow, crippling travel and leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power. Five deaths appeared to have been caused by the storm which stretched from the Carolinas north to New England and also spread into some Midwestern states. The 16 inches (40 centimetres) of snow that fell at Reagan National Airport outside Washington was the most ever recorded for a single December day, and 16 inches (40 centimetres) had also fallen in Philadelphia.

gulfnews : Europe, US hit by cold wave as snow derails travel plans, shopping