Ireland hit by Europe’s big freeze as flight chaos affects thousands  

Ice Age conditions across continent with snow even hitting North Africa

In Slovakia, temperatures plummeted to minus 37 degrees while 80 percent of the Danube river in Romania is frozen over.

A four-month-old baby died in an unheated house in the Romanian city of Iasi and three others were taken into care as temperatures dipped as low as minus 20 degrees.

“These children were already suffering from malnutrition. When the cold hit, their situation went from bad to worse to catastrophic,” a spokesman said.

The UN’s World Meteorological Organization spokeswoman Clare Nullis told reporters that Europe’s unseasonably warm December and January meant this would not be a record-breaking winter.

The Serbian government has declared a state of emergency in the south and east of the country after six people died from exposure to the cold.

A funeral procession near the border with Macedonia was stuck for four hours and had to transfer the coffin to a 4x4 jeep.

Reports from the northern town of Ecka say workers in a local fishery had to use pneumatic drills to break ice and get to the fish.

“I have not seen anything like this for more than two decades,” said fisherman Nikola Kircic.

Tractors are being used to take food to animals in the mountains of southwestern Satornja.

“Roe deer and other small game are on the verge of starvation as the grass is under heavy snow,” said local hunter Momir Nikolic.

The German weather service DWD has said it expects extreme cold to continue in central and eastern Europe for the next four days, but that temperatures would rise back above freezing point in most parts of France and Britain.

​
Nster.com