COLD GRIPS EUROPE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 22 December 1938, Page 7

COLD GRIPS EUROPE

RIVERS AND CANALS FROZEN DEATH AND SUFFERING IN MANY PLACES IU.P.A.—Hv Electric Telegra ph—Copyright] LONDON. 21st December. Europe is in the grip of the coldest spell for many years which is causing intense suffering and numerous deaths. Rivers and canals are frozen all over Europe, with snow even on the f rench Riviera. Snow is falling throughout Britain dislocating road and rail traffic. The temperature in London is 10 degrees below freezing point and still dropping. Ten deaths occurred in Britain yesterday. A member of the Royal Air Force was killed when his plane landed in Shropshire and overturned on the frozen surface. A train skidded in ;ce on the track at Greenwich and four coaches were derailed. The hot-water pipes in six houses vt various places froze and caused the boilers to explode, wrecking rooms. One person was killed. Many villages arc isolated as the result of a snowfall a foot deep. A message from Berlin reports that the thermometer is below freezing point, the coldest day for 80 years. The River Danube is frozen. Paris reports that factories throughout France are closing down because of their boilers being frozen. A Bucharest report states that II people were frozen to death, and Warsaw reports that 5000 refugees huddled on a "no-man-island” between Poland and Germany are undergoing untold sufferings. Six hundred of them are stricken with influenza and 10 are dead. A Rome message says that the Lagoon at Venice is frozen over.