Blizzards and dangerously low temperatures persisted in parts of Europe on Sunday, prompting Pope Francis to draw attention to the homeless suffering in freezing weather.
In Serbia, aid workers scrambled to help hundreds of migrants sleeping rough in parks and makeshift shelters.
The extreme winter weather that has gripped Europe in the past days has caused more than a dozen deaths, left villages cut off, caused power and water outages, frozen rivers and lakes, grounded flights and led to road accidents. Serbia’s authorities on Sunday banned river traffic on its stretch of the Danube, one of Europe’s main rivers because of ice and strong wind.
In Italy, eight deaths were blamed on the cold, including a man who died in the basement of an unused building in Milan, and another one on a street flanking Florence’s Arno River. Pope Francis asked God to “warm our hearts so we’ll help” the homeless.
In Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, several hundred men, mostly from Afghanistan and Pakistan, remained in an abandoned customs warehouse by the city’s bus station, where aid organisations distributed heaters, blankets, clothes and food in an attempt to keep them warm.
“We are all working together to help these people,” Mirjana Milenkovski, a spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency, said.
While most of the several thousand migrants in Serbia have stayed in the Balkan country’s asylum centres, hundreds have refused to do so, looking for ways to move on toward western Europe.
In neighbouring Bulgaria, police said two men from Iraq and a Somali woman died from cold in the mountains near Turkey as they tried to make their way toward Europe. Many in the Belgrade warehouse were sick after few days in extreme cold, aid workers said.
“The next few days are critical, and for sure the health condition of these people is worsening,” said Stephane Moissaing, MSF Head of Mission in Serbia.
German federal police said Sunday they picked up 19 migrants including five children at a highway stop in Bavaria who were suffering from hypothermia after their driver disappeared and left them on the back of an unheated a truck for hours in the freezing cold.
Elsewhere, emergency measures were declared in several municipalities in Serbia’s south and southwest. Dozens of villages in Serbia’s remote Pestar region were sealed off by heavy snow, prompting the evacuation of some 100 people by emergency crews. Authorities said 70 kilometres of water pipes there were frozen.
Numerous villages in northern Bulgaria also were left without electricity and water. Power outages were also reported throughout the region.Britain is set to shiver from an Arctic blast with four inches of snow and temperatures as low as minus 10C.
Plunging temperatures have been blamed for dozens of deaths across Europe as winter takes its toll.
And the cold snap is set to make its way to Britain with single digit temperatures and frosts forecast before snow.
A Met Office forecaster said: 'Cold air will move across the UK from the north towards the weekend when we will be in a Polar maritime airmass.
'It will feel bitter in strong northerly winds with gales possible around the coasts, combined with high tides there could be very large waves to contend with.
'From Friday we could see snow in many places, showers are more likely to be snow than rain.
'Next weekend we could be into minus double figures overnight, so a big change in the weather on the way and possibly the coldest spell of winter so far.'
Before the snow falls, the Met Office predicts rain and wind.
It said: 'Monday will be wet and windy, particularly in Scotland, where gales are likely. Staying windy on Tuesday and Wednesday, although a little less wet. Then turning colder later on Wednesday.
'Thursday sees rain in the south clearing to a mixture of sunshine and showers across the country.
'These showers will turn increasingly wintry, even to lower levels in the north, where they will be most frequent.
'It'll be windy with coastal gales, and turning colder with frosts likely overnight.
'Conditions are expected to stay unsettled through the weekend, with areas of cloud and rain pushing west to east across the country, interspersed with brighter, showery spells. It will stay windy, with a risk of gales in the north-west.'Blizzards and dangerously low temperatures persisted in parts of Europe on Sunday, prompting Pope Francis to draw attention to the homeless suffering in freezing weather.
In Serbia, aid workers scrambled to help hundreds of migrants sleeping rough in parks and makeshift shelters.
The extreme winter weather that has gripped Europe in the past days has caused more than a dozen deaths, left villages cut off, caused power and water outages, frozen rivers and lakes, grounded flights and led to road accidents.
Serbia's authorities on Sunday banned river traffic on its stretch of the Danube - one of Europe's main rivers - because of ice and strong wind.
Two men died of cold in Poland on Saturday, bringing the nation's death toll from winter weather to 55 since November 1, authorities said Sunday.
Temperatures dropped to minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit) in the mountains of southern Poland.
In Italy, eight deaths were blamed on the cold, including a man who died in the basement of an unused building in Milan, and another one on a street flanking Florence's Arno River.
Pope Francis asked God to 'warm our hearts so we'll help' the homeless.In Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, several hundred men, mostly from Afghanistan and Pakistan, remained in an abandoned customs warehouse by the city's bus station, where aid organizations distributed heaters, blankets, clothes and food in an attempt to keep them warm.
'We are all working together to help these people,' said Mirjana Milenkovski, a spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency.
While most of the several thousand migrants in Serbia have stayed in the Balkan country's asylum centers, hundreds have refused to do so, looking for ways to move on toward western Europe.
In neighboring Bulgaria, police said two men from Iraq and a Somali woman died from cold in the mountains near Turkey as they tried to make their way toward Europe. Many in the Belgrade warehouse were sick after few days in extreme cold, aid workers said.
'The next few days are critical, and for sure the health condition of these people is worsening,' said Stephane Moissaing, MSF Head of Mission in Serbia.
German federal police said Sunday they picked up 19 migrants - including five children - at a highway stop in Bavaria who were suffering from hypothermia after their driver disappeared and left them on the back of an unheated a truck for hours in the freezing cold.
Elsewhere, emergency measures were declared in several municipalities in Serbia's south and southwest. Dozens of villages in Serbia's remote Pestar region were sealed off by heavy snow, prompting the evacuation of some 100 people by emergency crews. Authorities said 70 kilometers of water pipes there were frozen.
Numerous villages in northern Bulgaria also were left without electricity and water. Power outages were also reported throughout the region.
Polar temperatures of between minus 15 and minus 26 degrees Celsius (5 and minus 15 Fahrenheit) saw ice forming on the Adriatic sea and the Danube, while countless smaller rivers, lakes and ponds froze.
Montenegro's port of Bar in southern Adriatic closed down on Saturday, while sea traffic was suspended for days in neighboring Croatia.
