Storm Snarls Roads, Airports in Europe

LONDON —  A killer storm blowing out of Siberia sent temperatures plunging below freezing Friday across Europe and blanketed roads with snow, snarling traffic, stranding thousands of travelers and causing at least four deaths.

The snow, falling from Yugoslavia to Britain and piling up more than three feet in places, shut schools and airports, caused traffic accidents and warmed the hearts of Austrian ski resort operators.

In Britain, hundreds of motorists trapped on windy, snow-bound highways spent the night in their cars enduring the worst winter weather in four years. Travelers were advised to stay home Friday because many roads were nearly impassable or closed and air and ground public transportation crippled.

At London’s Gatwick Airport, the temperature dropped to 10 degrees overnight and more severe cold was forecast to last until next week. The coldest temperature recorded overnight in Britain was 5 degrees. Up to 10 inches of snow fell in Britain on Thursday and Friday with 10-foot drifts blocking roads in some areas.

The Royal Automobile Club received 20,000 calls for help Thursday, its busiest day in 94 years.

Two teen-agers were killed in a weather-related traffic accident, and a couple in the British Midlands were found in their snow-bound cottage, dead of apparent gas poisoning, officials said.

Most schools in southern Britain were closed as communities struggled to clear away the snow. In Warwickshire, north of London, police put tea urns in their patrol cars to hand out to stranded motorists.

France suffered through its coldest 48 hours in recent years as snow carpeted most of the country, including the Riviera in the south. Friday morning the temperature in the Paris suburbs fell to 10 degrees.

While the cold and snow stretched from Brittany in the northwest to the Pyrenees near the Spanish border, heavy snow also pummeled the Mediterranean coast, better known for its beaches and mild winters. Almost six inches of snow fell in Cannes.

In some parts of Germany, temperatures fell to 25 below this week and continuous snowfall throughout the country caused huge traffic jams and auto accidents.

A truck loaded with orange juice turned over on one of the major highways and within seconds turned part of it into an orange ice skating rink.

In several German cities, people used bottled water to make their morning coffee because water pipes froze. Sixty percent of the trains--often said to be the most punctual railway in Europe--were delayed by ice and snow.

In Switzerland, the temperature dropped to 4 below zero in Zurich and Geneva, where heavy snow closed the airport Thursday night.

In northwestern Yugoslavia, more than three feet fell, cutting off Slovenian villages near the Italian border. Icy rain, strong wind and fog hampered road traffic in central and eastern parts of the country.