In Britain hardest hit was Devon and Cornwall in southwest England, where the A30 highway in Bodmin Moor ground to a halt for several hours as 12.7 centimetres (five inches) of snow fell on the area.

By 11:30 PM (2330 GMT), however, police reported only 20 abandoned vehicles left, while 500 people who had been stranded on the stretch of desolate road had all been rescued -- some by military helicopters and recovery vehicles.

Fears that up to 2,000 pupils in southwest England would have to spend Friday night sleeping at school also proved unfounded, after all the youngsters were found somewhere to stay for the night or managed to return home.

Such wintery weather -- unusual for most part in the British Isles -- served to remind Britons of a warning given earlier by the Met Office that this winter could be harsher than usual.

The season's first snows also fell in downtown Paris and other parts of France, where two homeless men died of the cold as temperatures plunged.

A third man, 38, was found frozen to death in his car, where he had been living, in northeastern France where temperatures fell to minus five degrees Celsius.

The French authorities responded late on Friday by raising their weather alert in 31 departments, and asked for "increased vigilance" in the capital Paris.

Snow was reported from the Pyrenees in the south of France, where mountain passes were shut, to Normandy in the north, where the giant bridge across the Seine estuary was closed.

Snowfalls also caused 30 internal flights to be cancelled at Germany's main Frankfurt airport, and road closures in the west and south of the country.

In Britain Tesco, the biggest British retailer, said the cold snap had triggered a surge in demand for traditional winter favourites such as porridge, soups, pies, puddings and hot chocolate.

Up to 10 inches (25 centimetres) of snow fell in some parts of Britain, and forecasters predicted that snow was heading for London soon.

"We know what that means from bitter experience," said a glum London Evening Standard newspaper, predicting the usual travel chaos when the first dusting of snow arrives.

"Despite the fact that snow in the capital and the southeast is a predictable feature of the season, every time it happens, commuters find that large parts of the rail network shut down and councils are days behind the weather in gritting."

"It seems remarkable that in central Europe, transport systems function well in far worse weather conditions than ours."

The odds on snow falling on Christmas Day have dropped to five to one in London, and four to one in Glasgow and Aberdeen in Scotland.

The odds that Christmas 2005 will be the coldest on record in Britain dropped from 25 to one to 20 to one.

The coldest December 25 recorded was minus 18.3 degrees CelsiusFahrenheit), in 1878 in County Durham in northeast England.

Bookmaker Coral has cut the odds on a white Christmas from seven to two down to three to one.

"Bookies will be faced with a multi-million pound (euro, dollar) payout if just one flake falls on the London Weather Centre on Christmas Day, and thousands of punters will be hoping for an extra present on December 25," spokesman David Stevens said.

In the Netherlands, Amsterdam's Schiphol airport was back to normal by mid-afternoon after hours of severe disruption by a violent storm but road transport remained chaotic.

Two of Schiphol's three runways were closed, causing delays, cancellations and diversion of flights.

The Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute issued a storm alert and warned that up to 10 centimetres (four inches) of snow would fall.

Traffic holdups totalled 650 kilometres (400 miles) across the country, the ANWB motoring organisation said.

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