Roads and airports across large chunks of Britain are closed as snow and wind wreak havoc with travel plans.
Hundreds of drivers were trapped in their cars overnight in Scotland, where authorities said everyone except emergency-services workers should stay off the roads. The snow shut Glasgow and Edinburgh airports, and there are cancellations at Heathrow and other airports in England.
Police in the county of Lincolnshire in eastern England say most roads there are impassable, with as much as 2 feet (60 centimeters) of snow in rural areas.
Geneva airport reopens
The airport in the Swiss city of Geneva closed for several hours Thursday because of the bitterly cold weather that has hit many parts of Europe this week with snow and icy winds, causing travel chaos.
The airport reopened at 1000 GMT for departures and will accept arrivals from 1200 GMT, the airport said in a statement on its mobile app, which showed more than 40 flights from Geneva had been canceled, as well as dozens arrivals.
A Siberian weather system forecasters have called the “beast from the east” brought snow, strong winds and the coldest temperatures for years to many regions across Europe.
Geneva’s temperatures are set to rise later on Thursday, but the freeze is expected to continue elsewhere.
Fatalities across Europe
Several people have died across Europe as the continent endures unusually cold late-winter weather. The fatalities include a man in his 60s who was pronounced dead after being pulled from a frozen lake in London on Wednesday, the ambulance service said.
Forecasters say a new storm is due to bring blizzards, freezing rain and thunderstorms to Ireland, southwestern England and Wales on Thursday.