Snow and ice hit school buses

SCHOOL transport was cancelled across a large part of the west of France today after a weekend of poor road and weather conditions and 39 departments in the east are still on orange alert.

There is little sign of any let-up with tonight and tomorrow night expected to continue extremely cold.

Although the snow has stopped, temperatures are negative across the vast majority of the country - with just Brittany getting above zero this morning at 6C while Clermont Ferrand was at -17C.

So far four people have died in the cold: an 11-year-old boy died who fell through ice on a frozen pond in Corcieux (Vosges), and a homeless man in Champigny-sur-Marne (Val-de-Marne); and two Alzheimer's sufferers, an 82-year-old man who was found on a country track in Bitche (Moselle) and woman in her 70s who was found dead in Saint-Augustin park, Toulouse, after wandering out of her care home wearing only pyjamas.

Prefects halted school transport in a wide band across the country from Pas-de-Calais to Aude. The majority of departments in Poitou-Charentes, Limousin and Aquitaine cancelled school buses due to widespread black ice - although schools remained open for children who made it in. In Midi-Pyrénées only Aveyron had school buses running.

Yesterday snow falls of 10cm were reported across western departments from Poitou-Charentes to Aquitaine before moving towards Normandy, Ile-de-France and Pas-de-Calais.

The orange alert warning of severe cold conditions and for snow and ice was given for the regions of Alsace, Auvergne, Bourgogne, Champagne-Ardenne, France-Comté, Limousin, Lorraine and Rhône-Alpes plus the departments of Aisne, Hautes-Alpes, Aveyron, Lozère, Nord and Tarn.

TGVs are running at reduced speeds as a safety measure, with lines west out of Paris Montparnasse seeing longest delays. SNCF was warning of delays of up to 30 minutes for other services.

Photo: Renaud Camus-Flickr