Europe’s Arctic cold front loosened its deadly grip on Thursday, but not before claiming at least 60 more victims overnight in Ukraine, Poland and half-a-dozen other countries battered by a week of deep-freezer temperatures.
In Italy near Milan, a mother discovered that her newborn child had frozen to death inside the nomadic family’s makeshift tin shack. Another three-month old Roma child died under similar circumstances in Bulgaria.
In Ukraine alone 40 people perished overnight Wednesday as a result of extreme cold, bringing to at least 181 the number of deaths since temperatures plunged last week.
In Poland the most recent 24-hour toll was 10, for an 8-day total of 63 dead. There were also deaths reported in Croatia, the Czech Republic and Romania, which had registered 37 weather-related fatalities for the week as of Thurdsay.
The situation in Georgia remained critical Thursday due to massive electricity failures and the fifth day without natural gas supplies from Russia, abruptly cut when an explosion Sunday burst the main pipeline.
Most homes in the capital of this ex-Soviet nation were without gas as overnight temperatures fell as low as minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 Fahrenheit).
The country’s problems were compounded by power cuts across the capital Tbilisi and the rest of eastern Georgia caused by snowstorms and excessive demand. Only key installations such as hospitals were being supplied with emergency electricity, a spokesman for the state-run power company told AFP.