BUCHAREST – More than 40 people have died this week as eastern and central Europe battles a Siberian cold snap that has cut power and roads, disrupted air travel and stranded whole villages, officials said on Tuesday. Snow has blanketed swathes of western Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania, with lows of minus 35 degrees Celsius (minus 31 Fahrenheit), while Poland has again been gripped by a deep freeze that has killed more than 200 in the country since November. An ice and snow front moved yesterday into Germany causing the cancellation of more than 200 flights out of Frankfurt Airport – Europe's third biggest international air hub – according to the airport management company. In Bulgaria, schools remained closed yesterday in many eastern towns while rescuers fought their way through four-metre-(13-feet-)high snowdrifts to bring bread and other necessities to cut-off villages. Temperatures plummeted to minus 34.4 degrees Celsius in central Romania where roads were cut and dozens of trains cancelled. Twenty-two people have died across Romania since the start of the cold snap five days ago, the Health Ministry said. "Most of them were elderly, homeless people," junior minister Raed Arafat said on Realitatea TV channel. With no let-up in view before today, authorities are struggling to get thousands of homeless people into shelters. In Turkey, five people died after a fierce snowstorm caused power outages at the weekend in Istanbul, while further west near the Greek and Bulgarian borders, villages and major roads were blocked by snow. Snow was expected to reach up to 35 centimetres (14 inches) in some parts of Istanbul, a city of 14 million, according to the natural disaster coordination centre. In Bulgaria, three people died at the weekend as officials recorded minus 29 degrees Celsius in the northern town of Glavinitza, and Monday was set to be the coldest day so far this winter. In Poland temperatures as low as minus 35 Celsius claimed 11 lives over the weekend, police said yesterday, taking the toll since November to 202. Most of the victims were homeless men aged 35 to 60 under the influence of alcohol who refused to stay at shelters for the homeless, police spokeswoman Kamila Szala said.
