Airports shut, trains slowed by snow and cold

Extreme winter weather in France has forced Lyon airport to cancel 116 flights on Wednesday. Record low temperatures, snow and ice have disrupted plane and train travel across Europe.

Reuters/Denis Balibouse

Lyon's Saint-Exupéry airport says on its website that traffic should gradually come back to normal throughout the afternoon.

About 20 per cent of high-speed TGV trains in the south-east of France have been cancelled. Eurostar, linking London with Paris and Brussels, said it was running slower trains, which mean service delays and cancellations.

Two trains between London and Brussels and four between London and Paris have already been cancelled, with others planned for Thursday.

Snowfall has forced more than 7,000 trucks to pull over and park on the side of the road overnight in the Auvergne and the Rhône Alpes regions of France. Another 3,000 were stopped in other parts of the country.

Thousands of homes had no electricity, with temperatures reaching -15°C in Orleans. France’s electricity network, RTE, warned of more cuts because of record demand levels expected on Thursday.

Snow and freezing temperatures have disrupted airports, train and road traffic in Germany and Britain and across Europe.

More than 200 flights were cancelled from Frankfurt, the continent's third busiest airport

London City Airport, a popular departure point for business travellers, has a heavily interrupted service after flights were suspended because of snow and ice, and Edinburgh, Scotland's busiest airport, was disrupted for a second day.

London's Heathrow, one of the world's busiest airports, said all its flights were operating normally.

Hundreds of road accidents were caused by thick snow in Poland, and at least four people were killed on roads in the Czech Republic.