Europe and Moscow freeze
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Dozens killed in Europe's freeze
Poland is struggling with severe cold and a gas shortfall
Freezing weather has killed dozens of people across Europe and wreaked havoc on the roads in the past few days.

More than 50 people have died in Russia since Arctic cold swept across the country last week.

At least 50 have died in neighbouring Ukraine - 30 within just 24 hours, the health ministry said on Monday.

Temperatures have also plunged to minus 30C in the Baltic republics and Czech Republic. Snow has spread as far south as Istanbul and Athens.

In other developments:


 


Moscow's power plants take the strain as Russians struggle to keep warm amid temperatures of minus 30 degrees Celsius


It is the coldest spell in the Russian capital for at least a decade.


Traffic police in Moscow brave freezing conditions to control traffic. Temperatures are forecast to fall even further, a Moscow official said.


Despite the cold, Russian Orthodox believers observe the custom of a dip in icy waters on the eve on the 19 January Epiphany. This pool was cut in ice on the Moskva River.


A woman in the village of Zakhafkovo near Moscow reads by candlelight after an accident cut power supply to the village


Moscow has not suffered such bitter cold for years


Chilled out: "Walrus" winter swimmers near the Moskva River

Arctic cold snap tests Russians

Schoolchildren are missing classes and boiler faults have left some households shivering as Arctic cold grips Russia.

It is the coldest January in Moscow for at least a decade and forecasters predict the temperature will plummet to minus 34C in the city this week.

Traffic police have been told they can wear felt boots to work, to go with their winter underwear and fur hats.

Meanwhile, a circus in Yaroslavl is reportedly giving its elephants vodka.

"We warm them up with alcohol," their trainer Andrei Kornilov was quoted as saying.

Help for homeless

The cold was blamed for boiler problems across Russia. One hospital in Ulan-Ude, eastern Siberia, was left without heating in minus 40C.

Moscow's homeless - estimated to number about 10,000 - are seeing some benefits from the cold, however, the Izvestia newspaper reports.

The police have been told to be kinder than usual towards them, and helpful signs at railway stations and markets tell them where they can get hot food and medical attention, Izvestia says.  

Nevertheless, two people died of hypothermia in Moscow overnight and another 14 were taken to hospital, Interfax reported.

Extreme cold in the Sverdlovsk region of the Urals sparked several bus fires through short-circuits, the IA-Regnum news agency said.

It has also been blamed for several cash machine and electronic security door breakdowns in Yekaterinburg.

But the famous Russian "walrus" club, whose members love to plunge into icy water in mid-winter, remains undeterred.

"We'll go bathing even if it reaches minus 60, like they do in Yakutia," said the club's chairman Vladimir Grebenkin.

"Walrus bathing doesn't stop - the season started at the end of December and it will end as planned in March," he told Interfax.

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