Europe's deadly freeze covers Acropolis in snow

Intemperate weather has even covered Athens's Acropolis in snow and frozen stretches of the eastern Danube running between Bulgaria and Romania.

The week-long deep freeze, forecast to last through Thursday, has claimed hundreds of lives from the Baltic nations and Russia in the north all the way down to Turkey and Greece, both semi-paralyzed by uninterrupted snowfall.

The 24-hour toll in Ukraine brings to 160 the number of weather-related deaths there since temperatures plunged into the minus 20s and minus 30s Celsius (minus 30s Fahrenheit).

The cold snap has also been lethal in Russia, with well over 100 deaths in Moscow alone, as well as Poland, where 14 persons died overnight Tuesday and 53 have succumbed since last week.

At least half of all victims are homeless, according to official statistics, and many deaths are alcohol related. Temporary shelters have been set up in sports gyms, public buildings and hospitals throughout eastern Europe in an effort to get people off the street.

In Bulgaria, a homeless woman was found frozen to death in Sofia, one of five deaths attributed since Monday to frigid temperatures.

Thousands more across eastern Europe are in hospital, suffering from frostbite and various stages of hypothermia.

In Georgia many regions are without heating following since a gas pipeline from Russia was sabotaged earlier in the week.

Especially hard hit Tuesday and Wednesday were Greece and western Turkey, unaccustomed to sustained periods of subfreezing temperatures. Both countries were blanketed in snow and coping with massive disruptions in road, air and sea transport.

Authorities in Turkey have barely been able to keep the international airports in Istanbul and capital Ankara open, and many flights to other Turkish cities have been cancelled.

More than 800 traffic accidents have been reported in Istanbul, the commercial capital of 12 million residents, and another 300 in Ankara, resulting in 17 deaths and numerous injuries.

Sea lanes between Istanbul and nearby cities have also been shut down, and even ferry transport across the Bosphorus between the city's European and Asian sides has been disrupted. In Greece, most ships were confined to harbor due to storm conditions in the Aegean and Ionian Seas.

In both countries thousands of villages have been cut off from road transports, and hundreds are without electricity or telephone service, while many schools and public buildings remained closed.

Even as temperatures eased in Russia, Germany and the Baltic states on Wednesday, other countries registered record lows.

In Ceske Budejovice in the southern Czech Republic, thermometers fell to minus 19.7 degrees C, 1.7 degree C below the previous record for that day set in 1947. Near the Austrian border temperatures fell to minus 27 degrees Celsius.

In Poland, the mercury inched up slightly from Tuesday lows of minus 35 degrees C (minus 31 F) in the southeast and minus 25 C (minus 13 F) in Warsaw.

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