Death toll from Europe’s brutal cold now at 123

Many of the victims in Ukraine, Poland were homeless.

BELGRADE, Serbia — At least 11,000 villagers have been trapped by heavy snow and blizzards in Serbia’s mountains, authorities said Thursday, as the death toll from Eastern Europe’s weeklong deep freeze rose to 123, many of them homeless people.

The harshest winter in decades has seen temperatures in some areas falling to minus 22 F and below, and has caused power outages, traffic chaos and widespread closures of schools, nurseries and airports.

The stranded in Serbia are stuck in some 6,500 homes in remote areas that cannot be reached due to icy, snow-clogged roads with banks reaching up to 16 feet. Emergency crews were trying to clear the snow to deliver badly needed supplies, and helicopters were sent to some particularly remote areas in Serbia and neighboring Bosnia.

In Serbia, relief efforts are concentrated on evacuating the sick, food delivery and gasoline distribution.

“We are trying everything to unblock the roads, since more snow and blizzards are expected in the coming days,” Serbian emergency police official Predrag Maric said.

He said “the most dramatic” situation is near Serbia’s southwestern town of Sijenica, where it has been freezing cold or snowing for 26 days, and diesel fuel supplies used by snowplows are running low..

Newly reported deaths Thursday because of the cold included 20 in Ukraine, nine in Poland and eight in Romania.

Official Polish spokeswoman Malgorzata Wozniak said her nation’s victims were mostly homeless people under the influence of alcohol who sought shelter in unheated buildings.