‘ Siberian bear’ tightens grip on Europe, 60 dead
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Paris, March 3: Europe’s deep freeze, which has cost more than 60 lives over the past week, continued to wreak havoc early on Saturday as the shivering continent awaited a sliver of weekend respite from a brutal Siberian cold front.
After heavy snowfall and deadly blizzards lashed Europe, conditions marginally improved in some regions on Friday — although temperatures generally remained subzero, forcing more major delays on roads, railways and at airports.
But Britain’s Met Office said the Arctic temperatures were set to rise.
“After the extreme weather many of us have seen recently many will see conditions ease a little ■ through the next few days,” it said. In France, the forecast this weekend was for rain rather than the kind of heavy snowfall that has blanketed vast tracts of Europe.
The deadly chill has been caused by weather blowing in from Siberia. British media have dubbed the front “the Beast from the East,” while the Dutch have gone for the “Siberian Bear” and the Swedes plumped for the “Snow Cannon”.
Over the past week, the freezing conditions have claimed more than 60 lives, including 23 in Poland, seven in Slovakia, six in the Czech Republic and five in Lithuania.
Other deaths were recorded in Spain, Italy, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway. France has seen at least nine weatherrelated deaths, including four skiers killed by an avalanche on Friday in the Alps, which have seen particularly heavy snowfall. A 41- year- old Libyan man was found dead in an empty train carriage in the western French town of Saintes.