Heavy snowfall downed power lines, blocked roads and snarled air travel across a wide swathe of Western Europe on Tuesday, with the unseasonably cold weather blamed for deaths in France and Germany, dpa reported. In Paris, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault directed a crisis management team to "ensure safety and transportation around the country." Some 60,000 households in France were without electricity, mainly in Brittany and Normandy, after as much as 20 centimetres of snow blanketed northern parts of the country starting Monday. A man believed to be homeless was found dead in the north-western town of Saint-Brieuc early Tuesday. At least 1,300 cars have been stranded in the hard-hit city of Calais, with some drivers enduring 15 hours stuck in their vehicle. Commuters traveling by train into Paris faced long delays Tuesday morning, while the Eurostar rail service to London through the Chunnel Tunnel was suspended beginning midday from France and Belgium. In Britain, busy commuter train routes in southern England were severely disrupted and many roads shut due to snow and high winds, causing misery for millions of travellers. As in France, hundreds of people in the counties of Kent and Sussex were forced to abandon their cars or spend Monday night in them after snow made minor roads impassable. Snowfall grounded flights across the continent, with one-quarter of Tuesday's flights canceled at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport. A frightening scene played out at Paris's Orly airport when a Tunisair jet with 140 passengers on board slid off the runaway on landing, leading to the temporary closure of one the airport's runways. There were no reports of injuries. Heavy snow on Tuesday also forced the temporary closure of Germany's biggest airport in Frankfurt, where 200 to 300 flights were canceled. Two people were killed and 27 schoolchildren slightly injured when a car collided with a bus in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Although the road had been ploughed, a police spokesman said ice "played a role" in the accident. Meanwhile, more than 100 vehicles were involved in a massive pile-up in the south-west German state of Hesse, near the town of Muenzenberg. Dozens were reported injured.
