Warsaw: Sub-zero weather claimed 17 victims in Central Europe over the past 24 hours, including 12 deaths in Poland alone, raising the week's weather-related death toll to 45 across the region, officials said.
Thirty of those deaths occurred in Poland where police confirmed 22 people had frozen to death over the last 48 hours as temperatures plunged as low as minus 15 degrees Celsius (minus five degrees Fahrenheit).
Alcohol and homelessness were common factors in the deaths and the victims were primarily men aged 35 to 60, police said.
In neighbouring Czech Republic, police said two more people died of exposure over the last 24 hours, bringing to eight the death toll due to cold this week.
Emergency services in neighbouring Slovakia on Friday confirmed the first two cold-related deaths this winter.
Cold weather has also claimed five lives this week in the Baltic state of Lithuania.
Sub-zero temperatures were forecast to keep their grip on the region over the weekend, with snowfall expected to continue to wreak havoc with road and railway networks as well as air traffic.
Authorities in Poland have 3,000 prison inmates armed with shovels on standby to clear snow and ice.
A total 289 people died of exposure in 2009 in Poland, including 119 victims in January alone, according to police statistics.
