INTENSE COLD IN EUROPE

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22591, 22 December 1938, Page 9

INTENSE COLD IN EUROPE

TRAFFIC DISLOCATED BY SNOW

MANY DEATHS REPORTED IN BRITAIN

RIVERS AND CANALS FROZEN OVER

(UHITID PRESS ASSOCIATIOH—COPTBIOHT.) (Received December 21, 10 p.m.)

LONDON, December 21

Europe is in the grip of the coldest spell for many years, which has caused intense suffering and numerous deaths.

Rivers and canals are frozen all over Europe, with snow even in the Riviera.

Snow is falling throughout Britain, dislocating road and rail traffic. The temperature in London is 10 degrees below freezing point and is still falling. A member of the Royal Air Force was killed when his aeroplane landed in Shropshire and overturned on the frozen surface. A train skidded in ice on the track at Greenwich and four coaches were derailed. Hot-water pipes in six houses in Britain froze, causing boilers to explode and wrecking rooms. One person was killed. Many villages have been isolated by a fall of one foot of snow. So far 10 deaths have been reported. In Berlin the temperature is 30 degrees below freezing point. It i? the coldest day for BO years. The Danube is frozen.

Factories throughout France are closing because the boilers are frozen.

In Rumania 11 persons were frozen to beath.

Five thousand refugees hud cd on a no-man's island between Poland and Germany had untold sufferings. Six hundred are stricken with influenza and 10 are dead. The lagoon at Venice was frozen.