Tue | May 19, 2026

Deep freeze claims 122 lives

Published:Friday | February 3, 2012 | 12:00 AM
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This pug strolls on a street in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, in a cold winter, yesterday. Germany faces freezing temperatures coming from Russia down to minus 15° Celsius (five degrees Fahrenheit). AP Photos
A man views icicles on a window in Uzice 200 kilometres (125 miles) southwest of Belgrade, Serbia, yesterday.
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WARSAW (AP):

Europe's death toll from a week of frigid weather rose to 122 yesterday as officials scrambled to figure out how to protect mostly homeless victims from the deep freeze that is killing them.

Officials reported 20 more deaths from the cold in Ukraine yesterday and nine more in Poland. Emergency crews were working overtime across the region as temperatures sank to minus 32.5°C (minus 26.5°F).

Parts of the Black Sea froze near the Romanian coastline and the rare snow fell on Croatian islands in the Adriatic Sea. In Bulgaria, 16 towns recorded their lowest temperatures since records started 100 years ago.

Polish government spokeswoman Malgorzata Wozniak said her country's victims were mostly homeless people under the influence of alcohol who were seeking shelter in unheated buildings. Officials appealed to the public yesterday to quickly help anyone they saw in need.

In Ukraine, a shocking 63 people have died from the cold in the last week. Nearly 950 others were hospitalised with hypothermia and frostbite and more than 2,000 heated tents have been set up with hot food for the homeless.

To the south, helicopters evacuated dozens of people from snow-blocked villages in Serbia and Bosnia this week, and airlifted in food and medicine.

In central Serbia, choppers pulled out 12 people, including nine who went to a funeral but then could not get back over icy, snow-choked roads. Two more people froze to death in the snow and two others are missing, bringing that nation's death toll to five.