Packed with holidaymakers on ski trips, much of the area was placed under a maximum avalanche alert, with authorities closing off access to many ski resorts.

Avalanches claimed two more lives in a season set to be one of the worst on record.

One avalanche at Diablerets in the southern Swiss Alps on Sunday killed a 45-year-old woman snowshoeing, while another in the northeastern Italian province of Trento killed a 28-year-old Norwegian man.

At the other end of Italy, on the French border, an avalanche trapped three people on Mount Jaferau but rescue workers were able to pull them out alive, the Ansa news agency said.

Germany had the highest number of casualties, with 10 dead and hundreds injured due to accidents in heavy snow.

Hessen state in the south, dealing with the heaviest snowfall in 15 years, saw five accident-related deaths, while four were killed in neighboring Baden-Wuerttemberg and one woman was run over while sweeping snow.

The deep snowfall extended into central France where late Saturday a woman about 70 years old died after being knocked down by a vehicle near the town of Charite sur Loire.

Two boys aged 10 and 14 died when a 40-kilogramme (88-pound) rock fell on their family car Saturday near the village of Aussois in France's Savoie region, police said.

And a 25-year-old pregnant woman died on Sunday in Bouillargues, in the southern Gard region, when violent winds pushed the wall of a house under construction down on her.

In Switzerland on Saturday, a 17-year-old woman was also killed when scaffolding collapsed in winds which raged at between 60 to 80 kilometers (37 to 50 miles) an hour.

Authorities were forced to close stretches of motorways, leaving hundreds of cars stranded through the night Saturday on routes in eastern France and firemen relaying supplies to them to ensure passengers had sufficient food, water and warmth.

In the French Alps, 2,600 holidaymakers were put up by the town hall in Bourg-Saint-Maurice after the snow made travel impossible.

In southern Germany, too, hundreds of people were trapped on motorways Saturday, while a train en route from Duesseldorf to Milan spent the night stuck in the station at Singen with some 80 passengers because of snow on the rails.

In Switzerland, some 130 motorists spent the night at a civil protection center after the road between the capital Bern and the northeastern city of Zurich was blocked.

Flights at Frankfurt's international airport, Germany's largest, were wracked by delays on Saturday, as were those at the Munich airport -- where more than 40 centimeters (15 inches) of snow fell -- and rail traffic throughout the southern state of Bavaria.

On Saturday night a Siberia Airlines plane with 166 passengers on board skidded off the frozen runway in Munich as tried to take off for Moscow, the police said, adding that nobody was injured.

In central France, a thick fog on Sunday morning triggered a pile-up of three trucks and 31 cars on a motorway in Yonne and 31 people were hurt, two with serious injuries, authorities said. Train services in France and Switzerland were disrupted by the heavy snow on the rails.

The EuroAirport, which serves the Swiss city of Basel, as well as Mulhouse in France and Freiburg in Germany, was forced to shut down on Saturday, and reopen only late Sunday afternoon, airport authorities said.

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Snow Forces Thousands To Spend Night In Cars In France
Paris, France (AFP) Mar 05 - Thousands of people spent the night trapped in their cars and in trains on the weekend after heavy snow fall blanketed much of France, officials said Sunday.

The southeastern Alps region, packed with holidaymakers on ski trips, was worst-hit and was placed under a maximum avalanche alert following the snow storm.

Central and eastern France also encountered severe problems.

An elderly woman was crushed to death by her car Sunday as she tried to push it along a snowbound highway near the central town of Nevers.

On Saturday, two boys aged 10 and 14 were killed when a 40-kilogramme (88-pound) rock fell on their family car near the village of Aussois in the southeastern Savoie region as they were returning home from a ski vacation.

Authorities in eastern France said the occupants of 500 vehicles were trapped overnight on a freeway blocked between Dole and Mulhouse.

Fifty of the vehicles continued to be immobilised on the road well into Sunday, with firemen ensuring those inside had sufficient food, water and warmth.

Train services between Paris and the Swiss city of Basel were badly disrupted, as were those between the eastern French cities of Strasbourg and Lyon. Passengers going between Belfort and Besancon found their trains completely blocked.

In the Alps, 2,600 holidaymakers were put up by the town hall in Bourg-Saint-Maurice after the snow made travel impossible.

Access to many ski resorts in the area was extremely difficult Sunday, and one of the roads leading to the chic village of Val d'Isere was cut by a snow slide. Other resorts had to conduct avalanche-clearing operations before opening their runs.

An airport serving the towns of Basel and Mulhouse was closed on the weekend, and Mulhouse cancelled an annual carnival.

France state weather service said conditions were improving across the country late Sunday, though high winds and snow were forecast for the Alps and the Pyrenees mountain range in the southwest.

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