Intense snowfall leaves 6 dead, halts flights across Europe

International

SEVERE winter weather swept across large parts of Europe this week, killing at least six people and triggering widespread disruption to air and rail travels.

Authorities said five people died in France in separate weather-related road accidents, while a woman was killed in Sarajevo after being struck by a tree brought down by the weight of heavy, wet snow.

Emergency services across several countries were placed on high alert as conditions deteriorated, a report by BBC stated.

In France, officials reported three fatalities in the south-western department of Landes, where black ice caused deadly crashes on slippery roads.

Two more people were killed in separate incidents in the Paris region, including a collision with a heavy goods vehicle and a crash that sent a taxi into the Marne River.

The storm also battered the Balkans, with Sarajevo receiving around 40 centimeters of snow in a short period.

Police said the victim in the Bosnian capital was walking when a snow-laden tree collapsed, highlighting the dangers posed by the extreme accumulation.

Air travel bore the brunt of the chaos, with hundreds of flights cancelled across major European hubs.

Thousands of passengers were left stranded at airports in Paris and Amsterdam, many struggling to secure rebookings or reliable information as delays mounted.

French aviation authorities said operations at Paris’s main airports would be sharply reduced to allow crews to clear runways.

At Charles de Gaulle airport, about 40 percent of flights were cancelled for part of Wednesday, while Orly airport planned to suspend roughly a quarter of scheduled departures.

Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport also saw massive disruption, with more than 400 flights cancelled and hundreds more scrapped for the following day.

Long queues formed at airline service counters as travelers waited hours for assistance, missing onward connections.

Dutch carrier KLM said the extreme conditions and delays in supplies had left it close to running out of de-icing fluid, forcing it to cancel many services.

Passengers voiced frustration over what they described as poor communication and overcrowded terminals.

Rail travel was similarly affected, particularly in the Netherlands, where train services were briefly halted due to an IT outage before resuming with delays.(Xienderlyn Trinidad, USJ-R Comm Intern)