SOFIA, Bulgaria – A bitterly cold winter storm swept parts of Europe on Thursday.
At least thee seamen died when a Bulgarian ship sank in rough waters at while approaching the Black Sea, while heavy, drifting snow stranded thousands at airports, on mountain roads and in remote villages. Forecasters said temperatures fell to -20 Celsius, while snow drifts were up to two metres deep.
Authorities in northeastern Bulgaria declared a state of emergency, with the army called in to help civil defence officials clear roads and reach stranded motorists.
The nasty weather also caused problems in neighbouring Romania, where Bucharest’s two main airports were closed.
Parts of Turkey and Greece, as well as Western Europe, were also affected.
Some 311 Bulgarian villages were left without electricity and dozens were cut off without food supplies or fresh water, authorities said.
The northern Danube municipality of Ruse declared a state of emergency after heavy snow blocked many roads, said Andrei Ivanov, chief of the Balkan country’s civil defence service.
At least three crewmen were killed when a Bulgarian ship carrying scrap metal sank during a storm on the Azov Sea between Ukraine and Russia, officials said.
The Vanessa was carrying a crew of 10 and a Ukrainian pilot who was guiding the ship as it approached the Kerch Strait, which connects the Azov Sea to the Black Sea, said Sergei Petrov, a spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry for southern Russia.
Rescuers pulled one survivor and three bodies from the sea, where waves were as high as three metres, Petrov said.
Thousands of passengers were stranded in Romania after Bucharest’s two main airports were closed due to heavy snowfall. The snow also blocked many roads in the south, forcing the closure of at least one border crossing with Bulgaria and prompting train delays.
In Turkey’s capital of Ankara, snow caused traffic jams and accidents, but no injuries were reported.
Temperatures in Greece fell to -18 in the north of the country, where snow blanketed roads.
In Western Europe, ice and snow disrupted traffic. The Mont-Blanc tunnel linking France and Italy was closed to trucks until Friday because sharp temperature differences between the two sides threatened to disrupt the tunnel’s ventilation, traffic authorities said.
A Boeing 737 arriving from Marrakech, Morocco, slid off an icy runway at an airport in Deauville, northern France, airport authorities said.
The plane, operated by Atlas Blue, came to a halt in grass. The 169 passengers were evacuated unharmed.
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