Snowstorms have swept across west and central Europe for a second day, killing two people in Germany, disrupting air traffic and leaving dozens of drivers trapped on freezing, logjammed roads. The German victims were a 70-year-old bus driver killed in a head-on collision with a truck in the southwest region of Baden-Wuerttemberg, and a 50-year-old motorist who crashed into road barrier in neighbouring Bavaria.
Thousand of air passengers were forced to spend the night at Stuttgart airport after snow closed down the runway, while flights to and from Munich, the Bavarian capital, were also disrupted Wednesday.
The sudden wintry snap, which follows a period of unseasonably warm weather across Europe, left southern Germany coated in up to 10 centimetres (four inches) of white, with more snow expected until Saturday.
Traffic chaos also gripped southern Austria, where dozens of drivers spent a freezing night at the wheel, trapped in an eight-kilometre (five-mile) tailback caused by lorries blocking the road.
Around 300 trucks, equipped with snow tires but no chains, ground to a halt in the Drau valley near the Italian border in western Carinthia, where up to a metre (three feet) of snow fell overnight.
Police and firemen were deployed throughout the night to help equip them with chains -- and provide blankets and warm drinks for stranded drivers.
Power was cut to around 12,000 Austrian homes, with repair works seriouly disrupted by the risk of falling trees, according to the Carinthian energy provider Kelag, which said power should be restored by Wednesday evening.
Several roads and a highway in Carinthia were also closed due to the snow, while several families had to be evacuated from their homes because of the threat from falling trees.
In France, the situation was slowly returning to normal on the Paris-Lyon motorway Wednesday morning, after traffic was cut in both directions, leaving around 6,000 motorists stranded into the night.
Around 600 people who were still stuck as night fell were provided with emergency shelter in the nearby towns of Auxerre, Avallon and Sens, while a few dozen decided to stick it out in highway service stations.
The last stranded drivers left the area at around midnight Tuesday, according to the regional authorities.
Around 80,000 French homes were still without power on Wednesday, mostly in remote rural parts of the central Auvergne and Limousin regions, hardest bit by the sudden burst of wintry weather.
The state power provider EDF was unable to say when the situation would be back to normal, with power lines cut by falling trees or simply by the weight of the snow.
On a brighter note, the snowstorms were welcome relief to dozens of ski resorts in the French and Swiss Alps, many of which had been unable to open for the season for lack of snow.
