At least 23 people die in cold snap across Europe

WARSAW: A cold wave across Europe has left at least 23 dead in the past two days, including several migrants and homeless people, authorities said on Sunday, with the frigid temperatures expected to continue through the weekend.

Russia meanwhile celebrated the coldest Orthodox Christmas in 120 years, and even Istanbul was covered with a blanket of snow.

Ten of the latest victims of the cold perished in Poland where temperatures were as low as minus 14 degrees Celsius (seven degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday. “Seven people died on Friday in what was the deadliest day this winter,” said spokeswoman Bozena Wysocka from the Polish government centre for security (RCB). “We recorded three other victims the previous day,” she said. “This takes to 53 the number of hypothermia victims since November 1.” In Italy in the past 48 hours the cold has been blamed for seven deaths, including five homeless people, two of them Polish nationals, authorities said.

There was heavy snowfall in central Italy and also in the southeast where the airports at Bari and Brindisi as well as in Sicily were closed Saturday morning. Prague’s emergency services reported three deaths -- two homeless people and a parking lot guard – overnight in the Czech capital, the coldest night so far this winter.

Temperatures in Moscow fell to minus 30 degrees overnight and to minus 24 in St Petersburg where police found the body of a man who had died of hypothermia. And in Bulgaria on Friday the frozen bodies of two Iraqi migrants were discovered by villagers in a mountain forest in the southeast of the country near the border with Turkey.

Authorities expect the toll to rise as weather conditions are set to remain unchanged this weekend. The heavy snowstorms reached Turkey, paralysing its biggest city Istanbul forcing hundreds of flights to be cancelled.