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Paris (AFP) Dec 9, 2010 Icy roads left much of the Paris region paralysed on Thursday after the heaviest snowfall in almost 25 years, with drivers advised not to use their cars unless absolutely necessary. Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux asked drivers to leave their vehicles at home the day after 11 centimetres (more than four inches) of snow fell on Paris, the most since 1987. Thousands of passengers spent the night at Charles de Gaulle airport after their flights were cancelled, and thousands more stranded motorists were put up in municipal halls and school sports halls around the Paris region. In Velizy, southwest of Paris, between 7,000 and 8,000 people spent the night in company offices, at a shopping centre and in a sports hall. "People were fatalistic, surprised and sometimes shocked," a town hall spokesman told AFP. Police barred trucks from travelling on roads until at least midday (1100 GMT) in the Paris region, with around 3,000 lorries stuck on northern French motorways headed for the capital. There were flight delays and cancellations at Roissy Charles de Gaulle because of icy runways and fuel trucks' inability to get to planes, Air France said, advising passengers to check their flight status ahead of time. Authorities at the Eiffel Tower said they would reopen the landmark's first floor in the morning, and the rest of the monument progressively during the day after the weather forced its closure on Wednesday. Salt cannot be used to fight snow or ice at the 324-metre (1,063-feet) tower because it would damage the iron structure that at this time of year gets around 12,000 visitors a day. The snow forced a group of defendants on trial for torture and murder to spend the night at the courthouse in Creteil, southeast of the capital, after which the accused refused to appear in court on Thursday. Complaining that they had slept badly and been unable to wash or change clothes, they were eventually coaxed into court by their lawyers, using coffee and chocolate. Amid rising public anger at the authorities' perceived inability to deal with the situation, Hortefeux postponed a trip to Morocco and said he would send experts to other European cities to see how they deal with snow and ice. Commuters wearing hiking boots and salopettes dug their cars out from the snow after abandoning them the previous night. Maria Alves, 36, told AFP she spent 14 hours trapped in her car before abandoning it at around 4 am. "No one came to tell us what was going on, or to bring us food or drink, put some salt on the road, not even by hand. I had no supplies in the car, nothing to eat or to drink," she said. The weather hit public transport in the suburbs hard, with around 50 services affected, operator RATP said, including buses to Paris airports. The traffic situation was expected to return to normal on Thursday afternoon, authorities said.
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Heavy snow traps Scottish drivers in their carsLondon (AFP) Dec 7, 2010 Hundreds of motorists in Scotland were stranded on Tuesday following a freezing night spent in their cars on the country's snowbound roads. The country's busiest routes became impassable late Monday in bitterly cold conditions, forcing drivers and passengers in more than 500 vehicles to sleep in their cars. Scotland's government - which has many powers devolved from the British gove ... read more |
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