LONDON: Snowstorms and sub-zero temperatures have killed at least 30 people across Europe as well as severely disrupting air, rail and road transport.

At least 29 people froze to death in Poland as temperatures fell far below freezing, while in southern Germany a figure of -33 degrees Celsius was recorded.

Moscow said it was deploying 9,000 snow ploughs to

clear the city’s streets. Flights have been cancelled and

Eurostar passenger trains are still not running after electrical

failures.

More than 55,000 travellers had journeys cancelled after six trains broke down, in what Eurostar said was unprecedented winter weather in France.

The company hopes to announce this evening when services between England, France and Belgium would resume.

In Poland, police appealed for people to help if they came across homeless or drunk people lying outside as temperatures dropped towards -20 degrees Celsius in some areas. Most of those who froze to death over the weekend were homeless.

Meanwhile, one restaurant owner offered tens of thousands of homeless people a hot meal in Krakow’s main square. “The food is not the only important thing,” restaurateur Janusz Kosciuszko was quoted as telling Euronews.

“What is also important

is that these people know

that someone is thinking

about them.”

Elsewhere in Europe, two people were reported dead in Austria’s southern province of Styria as they tried to get home after nights out.

In France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, airport operators struggled to clear runways amid thick snowfall, with major disruption to flight patterns.

In France, 40 per cent of flights out of Paris’s Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports were cancelled as a second wave of snowstorms hit the country’s north. Charles de Gaulle warned as many as one in five flights was likely to be cancelled today.

Germany’s third largest airport - in Duesseldorf - was also closed because of yesterday’s heavy snow, authorities said. In Belgium, the three biggest airports -Brussels, Charleroi and Liege - were completely shut. Severe delays and cancellations were reported at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport.

In Britain, officials at Manchester Airport - the busiest outside the London area - suspended flights for 90 minutes as staff moved snow and de-iced a runway.

The weather also affected

rail travel across northern Europe, with Austrian trains brought to a standstill because of frozen points.