PARIS, Jan 24 (AFP) - A cold weather snap gripped much of western Europe Monday with temperatures dipping below zero and snow and ice affecting traffic in many areas.
Traffic around Germany was held up in several regions as snow falls blocked roads and ice made driving difficult, police said.
At least 25 accidents were reported on the main highway near Delmenhorst, northern Germany, due to icy roads, leaving one person seriously injured and numerous people hurt. The road was temporarily closed.
In the southwest state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, several heavy lorries were stuck on the autobahn between Pforzheim and Heimsheim, and emergency services were called in to try to get them moving.
In Saxony state, in the south east, the driver of a truck transporting wooden planks lost control of his vehicle near Chemnitz. It hit a car and overturned on the road, blocking both lanes for several hours. The driver, aged 33, escaped with minor head injuries.
In Britain, motorists were being warned of potentially hazardous road conditions on Monday, with snowfalls expected to hit eastern parts of the country.
Up to five centimetres (around two inches) of snow, as well as hail and sleet, were expected to fall on eastern Scotland and eastern parts of England, ranging from the far south to Northumberland in the north.
There was even a small chance of some snow showers in London, which in recent years has seen only rare snowfalls.
Temperatures also dipped in France prompting the government to declare an alert calling for more space in shelters for the homeless.
In the northwest of the country, snow was reported and local authorities in Normandy called on residents to limit their travel and to signal any homeless people left out in the cold.
The Meteo France weather service said to expect frigid temperatures of minus five and minus seven degrees Celsius (23 to 19 Fahrenheit) in the coming days in the eastern part of the country.
Portugal, Spain, and Belgium were also affected by the cold snap.
This week should be the coldest this year in Portugal, the weather service said while in Spain, where temperatures were expected to dip to minus 15 Celsius in the center of the country, the government urged motorists to try and stay off the roads.
In the Netherlands, a slight snowful overnight and freezing temperatures led to what was described Monday morning as "historic" traffic jams equivalent to 560 kilometers, or the distance between Amsterdam and Paris.
In Turkey heavy snowfall in almost all parts of the country since Saturday cut off hundreds of villages and disrupted traffic nationwide on roads which were overcrowded by motorists returning home after the four-day Eid al-Adha holiday.
Hundreds of cars, forming a queue of about 10 kilometers (six miles), remained stuck for several hours in the mountainous province of Bolu, which lies on the main highway between the capital Ankara and Istanbul, late on Sunday, after an accident blocked the road.
In the central city of Kayseri, a 65-year-old man died Monday after he fell and hit his head on the iced ground while cleaning snow in his garden.
Air traffic to Kayseri was also disrupted.
01/24/2005 12:11 GMT - AFP