Thousands of travellers were stranded at the main Paris airport Friday after hundreds of Christmas flights were cancelled, as freezing weather and widespread snowfalls caused travel chaos across Europe. At least 670 flights in and out of Roissy-Charles de Gaulle were scrapped, with flights in Belgium and Germany also affected and motorists staying off the roads as western Europe battled the latest cold snap.
Around 2,000 people had to be evacuated from Charles de Gaulle's Terminal 2E because of a build-up of snow on the roof, a section of which already collapsed in May 2004 shortly after it opened, killing four people. "I'm so tired that I no longer have the strength to be angry," said Frenchwoman Zoe Stephanou, 45. "My flight to Milan has been cancelled twice. The first when there was no snow." The cold hit air, rail and road transport across a swathe of Europe, with thousands of travellers forced to spend the night in trains or barracks, on ferries or in airports as the snow piled up.
"Unfortunately it seems likely that some people will spend their night at Roissy", French junior transport minister Thierry Mariani told AFP. "How many, I don't know... it's impossible to say." Around 40 passengers spent the night on a train stuck in the snow in the northern Somme region, with the Red Cross bringing them blankets and hot drinks. Deep drifts blocked many minor roads in the north and east, and snow also caused power cuts for around 10,000 French households, national grid authority ERDF said. Between 10 and 20 centimetres (four and eight inches) of snow fell overnight in Belgium, sowing chaos on the roads, with many buses and taxis in the capital Brussels unable to drive on snow-blocked streets and flights delayed.
Belgian trains were hit with severe delays as many railway employees were unable to make it to work, operator Infrabel said. Hundreds of plane passengers at Charleroi spent the night at the airport or in hotels after their flights were cancelled.
More snow was expected across Germany during the day, after several trains ground to a halt overnight as service was cut between Hanover and Berlin, the national railway Deutsche Bahn said. The country's third largest airport in Duesseldorf was shut down early Friday, a spokeswoman for the flag carrier Lufthansa told AFP, although it reopened in the afternoon.
Two municipal swimming pool roofs collapsed under the weight of the snow, without causing any casualties, in the city of Aachen near the Belgian and Dutch borders. Hundreds of tourists on the Danish island of Bornholm were forced to spend the night in an army barracks or on the ferry after heavy snow overnight.
In Britain, where heavy snow last week caused widespread transport chaos, meteorologists warned of further snow and widespread icy roads in north-east England and eastern Scotland. Train services were disrupted across large parts of the country, hitting travellers heading home for Christmas, although Heathrow airport was largely back to normal after the chaos of recent days.
In Ireland, Dublin airport reopened Friday after being closed for much of Thursday, stranding about 40,000 passengers. Snow and ice crews worked overnight to clear about 120,000 tonnes of snow from the runway, a statement from the airport said.