[size=75:y4iztqsi]Sofia echo 25 January 2010

Deaths as freezing weather hits Central and Eastern Europe

The sub-zero winter weather that already has taken lives in Central and Eastern Europe and disrupted road traffic and school days is set to continue into the week, weather forecasts on January 25 2010 said.

In Turkey, at least two people were reported to have died because of the harsh weather. Authorities urged motorists to avoid travelling, given that there had been hundreds of accidents on iced-up roads.

Eastern Turkey was expected to be hit by temperatures as low as -20 degrees Celsius in the next few days, while the capital city Ankara would be -12 and Istanbul -6. Turkey’s Black Sea coast was expected to see minimums of -15, along with snowfall, rare for that part of Turkey.

In Romania, two people froze to death, several national roads were closed and several homeless people were taken to reception centres on January 23, Bulgarian news agency Focus said, quoting daily Evenimentul Zilei.

A frost warning was issued for the January 24 to 27 period in Romania, with seven countries in northern and central Romania expected to experience minimums of about -26 degrees.

In Chisinau, Komsomolskaya Pravda said that schools would be closed if temperatures went below -25. Quoting the newspaper, Focus said that Moldovan weather forecasters had said that temperatures in several places would be below -27 degrees.

Heavy snow was expected on January 26 in Croatia, Hungary and Serbia.