Moscow's death toll due to Siberian temperatures jumped to at least 79 after three more people froze to death overnight.

In addition to the dead, 20 people were hospitalised with hypothermia, the Interfax news agency said.

Temperatures in the Russian capital eased slightly to about minus 18 Celsius (minus 0.4 Fahrenheit), after reaching as low as minus 23 C (minus 9.4 F) overnight.

In Estonia, where temperatures fell to minus 26 C in the southeastern part of the Baltic nation, several fires were caused by overheating, killing two people Sunday.

Two more people died from cold in Lithuania over the weekend, bringing the total to eight.

Three elderly people also died in Ukraine, raising the total to 21 deaths since temperatures dropped at the start of last week.

Meanwhile, five deaths from hypothermia were reported in neighbouring Poland where rail and road traffic was seriously disrupted Sunday.

In Turkey, a man died of exposure after walking in snow-covered mountains in the north of the country, Anatolia news agency said.

Across the northern swathe of Europe, from Russia across the Baltics to the Scandinavian states, authorities sought to keep energy supplies running, road and rail traffic circulating, and health authorities alerted in the midst of the extreme conditions.

In the Moscow region, authorities resolved a number of cases of failed heat supplies to homes and traffic problems caused by heavy snowfall, news reports said, while regions struggled to keep ageing heating systems operational.

Forecasters there said temperatures would fall on Monday to minus 24 C (minus 11.2 F) but would rise later in the week to minus 12 C (minus 10.4 F) on Thursday.

In Turkey, heavy snowfall swept across the north and east on Saturday, isolating more than 3,600 villages and cutting off electricity supplies to hundreds of others.

Elsewhere, cold conditions provoked large numbers of road accidents.

The cold front reached eastern parts of Germany overnight Saturday with temperatures dropping to minus 19 C from around zero C within less than 24 hours.

One man died in a pile-up caused by black ice in eastern Germany.

Icy roads also caused many accidents in the Czech Republic, including a crash between three cars that injured seven people in the east of the country.

In Sweden, at least 500 car accidents were reported due to difficult driving conditions.

In Denmark, snow and ice shut down Copenhagen's airport for several hours on Friday and Scandinavia's main airline SAS cancelled 144 flights on Saturday. Air traffic was returning to normal on Sunday.

Gas supplies to several European countries have also been disrupted as Russian officials concentrated on ensuring supplies for Russian households.

Poland's national gas company said deliveries were reduced to major industries to ensure supplies to consumers.

Italian energy group ENI said that Russian gas deliveries had fallen short of ordered deliveries for a sixth day on Sunday.

Meanwhile an explosion on a Russian gas supply pipeline, attributed by officials to sabotage, cut supplies to Georgia and Armenia and looked likely to take several days to repair.

Last week Russia's own gas supplies were reduced by 10 percent.

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