January 24, 2004

Freezing temperatures, heavy snow and high winds threw parts of southeastern Europe into chaos, claiming dozens of lives and overwhelming emergency services in the usually temperate region.

At least five people, including two schoolboys, froze to death in Turkey, while 15 sailors from a Greek-owned cargo ship were feared dead after the vessel sank in gale-force winds in the Mediterranean.

Turkish authorities were forced to shut down the key shipping route linking the Black Sea to the Mediterranean via the Bosphorus after strong winds and snow severely impaired visibility.

In the Middle East, the Suez Canal leading from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea was also closed because of bad weather and heavy rains.

Nearly 30 ships at the northern end were stuck at Port Said until visibility improved and winds slowed down, allowing the canal to be reopened on Friday afternoon.

Thirteen people died in two days in traffic accidents around Egypt brought on by rain and sandstorms, seven of them when a minibus filled with pilgrims crashed in poor visibility.

Bad weather hit Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Greece and Romania, with wind gusts up to 140 kilometres (90 miles) per hour cutting electricity to scores of towns in Bulgaria, and a state of emergency announced on the northern Greek island of Limnos.

Three children drowned in western Romania when the ice on the pond on which they were playing cracked, local authorities said.

And a gathering Saturday of 10,000 people including President Ion Iliescu to commemorate the 145th anniversary of the union of Romanian principalities was cancelled because of fierce snow storms, officials said.

In the Mediterranean, rescuers searched for 15 missing sailors -- 14 Egyptians and one Greek -- from a cargo ship which capsized in stormy international waters west of the Greek island of Crete.

A US-flagged cargo ship which rushed to provide assistance located the only two survivors found so far, both Egyptians.

But Turkey was worst hit by the weather. Rescuers there worked feverishly to free thousands of drivers trapped in their cars around the largest city, Istanbul, media reported. Many motorists ran out of fuel when they left their engines running overnight to stay warm.

Schools, universities and the stock exchange were closed after the equivalent of a month's precipitation fell on the region in just 24 hours, an official said.

In Istanbul, the authorities declared a state of alert. Rescue services official Ali Karahan said 9,000 police and municipal staff had been mobilized to cope with the severe conditions.

A 13-year-old boy in the eastern town of Cat and a eight-year-old boy from Istanbul both froze to death travelling between home and school. The snow also claimed three lives in the western provinces of Canakkale and Balikesir, Anatolia news agency reported.

Nine people, including six school pupils, were still missing more than 12 hours after they left their small village near the eastern Turkish town of Karayzi to attend an athletics competition, the town's governor told Anatolia.

The governor of Istanbul, Muammer Gular, described the situation on Thursday as "extraordinary", saying conditions were "similar to those of a disaster". Forecasters warned that snow would continue falling throughout the weekend.

Some 85 villages and towns in Bulgaria were without power on Friday, with dozens of secondary roads closed because of snow drifts. Temperatures were expected to range between minus two and minus 12 degrees Celsius (28 and 10 degrees Farenheit), about average for January, the weather service said.

The Czech Republic was also shivering in temperatures around minus 12 degrees Celsius in the capital Prague. The mercury was expected to drop to minus 20 (minus four degrees Farenheit) over the weekend.

Rome received a dusting of snow, which had not been seen in the Italian capital for four years. The last major snowfall there was in 1985.

Even in Lebanon winds reached 100 kilometres an hour, causing significant damage and preventing hundreds of fishermen from putting to sea in the southern ports of Tyre and Sidon.

Britain was expected to largely escape the worst of the bad weather this time but meteorologists warned that another fierce storm would hit the country next Monday night.

Cunard's new flagship ocean liner, the Queen Mary 2, was expected to leave its home port of Southampton as planned on Monday evening for an inaugural transatlantic voyage whatever the weather conditions, a company spokesman said.

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