More than 600 people in Eastern Europe have died during a record-breaking cold snap, authorities said Wednesday, as officials in the Czech Republic blamed two massive car pile-ups on blinding snow. Since the end of January, the region has been pummelled by the deep freeze, which has brought the heaviest blizzards in recent memory, trapped thousands behind walls of snow, and left officials struggling to reach out to the vulnerable.
Authorities in Russia and Ukraine alone said Wednesday that more than 300 people have died in the bitter cold. Some hundred damaged cars blocked a major highway in the Czech Republic connecting the capital, Prague, with the eastern part of the country and Slovakia. Seven people were injured in the two accidents, authorities said, warning it could be hours before the mangled vehicles are cleared.
In hard-hit Romania, some 23,000 people remain isolated in 225 eastern communities where more than one week of heavy snowfall has blocked roads and wreaked havoc on the rail network. Residents were worried that their rural houses could collapse under the heavy snow as authorities struggled to bring them food, water, medicine and wood. A flight instructor volunteered to fly his home-made powered parachute, making several 45 minute-trips to deliver bread and canned food to people who have been cut off for days.
In the Czech Republic, police and the National Traffic Centre reported two separate pile-ups. Some 40 cars crashed in a series of accidents before midday Wednesday during a heavy snowstorm some 188 miles (300 kilometres) east of Prague, injuring two. Dozens of vehicles, including a bus, were involved in a separate crash south-east of Prague, which injured five, according to Czech public CT24 television.
Among other countries, authorities in Russia say 205 people have died, while in Ukraine there have been 112 fatalities; in Poland, 107 people have lost their lives due to the frigid weather. Authorities said seven people have died in Romania in the past 24 hours, bringing the total there to 86 deaths.