Big chill continues to claim more lives

Kiev/London: Bitterly cold weather sweeping across Europe claimed more victims yesterday and brought widespread disruption to transport services, with warnings that the chilling temperatures would remain into next week.

Hundreds have lost their lives in eastern Europe as freezing weather sweeps across the continent westwards, while major airports warned that services would be delayed or cancelled.

Steven Keates, a weather forecaster at Britain's Met Office, said the severe wintry conditions were expected to last and spread to other areas.

"It will still be very cold, maybe not quite the exceptional temperatures we've seen this last week, but still very cold," he told Reuters, saying the current front which brought snow and ice to Britain overnight was now heading to Belgium and Germany.

"[It will be] perhaps turning increasingly unsettled across southern and eastern Europe, so that will probably bring a risk of snow for Italy across to Greece and up round the Balkan countries."

Nine more deaths from cold were registered in Ukraine overnight, emergencies services said yesterday, taking the death toll to 131 from a nine-day cold spell which has brought freezing temperatures to the ex-Soviet republic. A statement from the Emergencies Ministry said 1,800 people were receiving hospital treatment for cold-related ailments.

The cold spell — the most severe for Ukraine in six years with night temperatures down as low as minus 33 Celsius in parts — has tested the country's social network to its limits.

Many of the dead were homeless people with bodies being found in the streets under snow, in rivers and in doorways. Metro stations in the capital Kiev have become sanctuaries overnight for the homeless to find warmth. More than 3,000 heated tents have been set up around the country for the homeless.