Europe's death toll from freezing weather hits 360

WARSAW // The death toll from Europe's cold snap hit at least 360 with nine new victims in Poland, most of them homeless, and five drowned when a Bulgarian dam burst after torrential rain.

The bitter cold has engulfed most of Europe and even crossed the Mediterranean into north Africa, where as many as 16 people were killed on Algeria's snow-slicked roads or in other weather-related accidents.

Rare snow also fell in southern Tunisia for the first time in some 40 years, media reported, with temperatures well below freezing in some areas of the country and villages cut off.

The rain and snowstorms lashing southern Bulgaria collapsed the dam early yesterday, submerging the small village of Biser under 2.5 metres of water, emergency services said.

"People are in panic," the regional mayor, Mihail Liskov, said on national radio. "Ninety per cent of the village is under water."

Meanwhile, temperatures in Poland plunged to as low as -24°C, bringing another deadly night for the homeless.

In Lithuania, where the mercury has dipped to -31°C, the deaths of 12 more people over the weekend brought the cold snap's toll to 23.

Hungarian authorities have reported at least 12 dead since the onset of the cold.

Italian authorities continued to clear up after a rare snowstorm blanketed Rome over the weekend and crews struggled to restore power to about 60,000 homes across the country, especially in the Tuscan cities of Siena and Arezzo.

Elsewhere across Europe, authorities struggled to clear numerous clogged roads and runways that left tens of thousands of travellers stranded over the weekend.

After cancelling half of its flights on Sunday, operators of London's Heathrow Airport said that normal operation had been almost completely restored.

While parts of Britain were beginning to warm above freezing, other European nations remained in an icy grip.

In the Czech town of Kvilda, near the Czech-German border, the temperature hit -39.4°C, the lowest recorded in the country this winter.