In London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Brussels, flights were cancelled and airports warned of backlogs spilling well into this week, with snow and ice frustrating travel plans across Europe on the last weekend before December 25.

Hundreds of passengers had to sleep in terminals after becoming trapped in no man's land when their flights were diverted from affected airports and they were without a visa to leave transit lounges.

Heavy snow and thick ice all but closed London Heathrow, the busiest international passenger air hub in the world, over the weekend and travellers faced a third day stranded Monday as arctic conditions sparked fresh flight delays and cancellations.

Britain's roads and railways were also hit by the harsh winter weather, with some roads made impassable after drivers abandoned their vehicles in heavy snow and passengers being ejected onto freezing platforms from broken-down trains.

With forecasters predicting this month could be the coldest December for a century, Britain braced for further problems Monday with up to 20 centimetres (eight inches) of snow expected in some places.

At Heathrow, disappointment turned to anger and frustration for Christmas travellers as their wait dragged on. Some said they were running out of money, while others reported lengthy queues for toilets and plug sockets for mobile phones.

Trevor Taylor, who had been waiting with his wife and two young sons for a flight for Singapore for two days, described conditions at Terminal 5 as "absolute mayhem".

"Frustration is building up. I've been sleeping on a knobbly marble floor and every space you can see is taken," the 37-year-old said.

There were a handful of arrivals and departures from Heathrow on Sunday, and the airport warned that disruption was set to continue.

A statement from Heathrow, which is operated by BAA, said the airport would provide a limited service from 0600 GMT Monday, but warned of knock-on effects from the weekend shutdown.

"We expect further cancellations and delays in the coming days, as airlines move diverted aircraft and crew back to their normal positions," it said.

Hundreds of passengers also slept at London's Gatwick airport on Saturday, although the situation there was improving on Sunday.

Other major airports, including London Stansted, London Luton, Birmingham, Glasgow and Bristol also faced delays and cancellations due to the weather.

Car breakdown service AA predicted it would answer about 14,000 call-outs on Sunday, double the average. Part of a major train route between London and Edinburgh was suspended, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded.

Two of the four runways at Paris's Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport, continental Europe's biggest air hub, remained closed, with dozens of flights scrapped.

Airport authorities said around 3,000 people would spend the night in the terminal buildings. Some 40 percent of Roissy flights from 1500 GMT were cancelled, affecting some 13,000 waiting passengers.

But the situation was expected progressively to return to normal Monday, with Secretary of State for Transport Thierry Mariani stating: "Tomorrow's weather forecasts are better so hopefully we'll get there."

Mariani lashed out at British Airways which he said had turned down an offer of places on Eurostar for its customers blocked in Paris after the closure of Heathrow.

The poor conditions forced Eurostar to cancel six of its trains between Britain, France and Belgium, the company announced, as other rail services warned of delays.

Frankfurt airport, Germany's busiest, cancelled more than 540 flights Sunday due to heavy snow, with further flurries and cancellations expected.

In the Netherlands several hundred people spent Saturday night at Amsterdam-Schiphol airport, where air traffic continued to be severely disrupted on Sunday.

In Belgium around 1,500 people were to spend a second night at Brussels airport, after up to 3,000 passengers slept there Saturday. Most of them were on 18 rerouted flights bound for Heathrow.

Sunday was Belgium's 18th day of snowfall since the start of November, beating the previous record set in 1945.

One person died in the hardest-hit southern Wallonia region when the roof of a barn collapsed under the weight of snow.

In northern Italy the situation was improving after two days of chaos on the roads and in airports in Tuscany.

In the Balkans, four people froze to death over the weekend. Two men, aged 72 and 50, were found near Banja Luka in Bosnia, while an elderly couple were found dead by their neighbours in Serbia.

earlier related report
London Heathrow paralysed as Christmas travellers snowed in
London (AFP) Dec 19, 2010 - London Heathrow, the world's busiest international passenger airport, remained paralysed Sunday due to snowfalls that wrecked Christmas commuter plans in Britain.

While other airports around the kingdom were able to open, Britain's main air hub was struggling to clear ice that formed overnight, leaving thousands stranded in the terminals.

The west London airport was accepting no arrivals on Sunday, while only "a handful" of departures were leaving. Heathrow said it was concentrating on a "full re-opening on Monday".

British singer Lily Allen was among those stuck, posting a series of increasingly angry Twitter messages as she tried for some six hours to get on a flight at Heathrow before announcing: "Guess we're all kipping here."

Among other major airports, London Gatwick, London Stansted, London Luton, Birmingham, Glasgow and Bristol were open but said the impact of the snow would lead to delays and cancellations.

"Today is Gatwick's busiest day of the festive getaway and we are doing everything we can to get passengers on their way and aircraft in the air," a spokeswoman for Europe's eighth-busiest passenger airport said.

Low-cost carrier Ryanair scrapped all flights from Gatwick, Stansted and Luton before 1000 GMT.

British Airways said it was working hard to sort out its flying schedule following a days of scrapped flights Saturday at Heathrow and Gatwick.

Meanwhile Eurostar, which operates high-speed passenger trains linking London with Paris and Brussels, was operating with speed restrictions that added up to an hour on journey times.

National rail routes and trunk roads were also affected.

In Lancashire, northwest England, hundreds of people had to spend the night in their cars after an accident blocked the main north-south motorway.

Sporting events were also hit, with Sunday's three English Premier League matches postponed, including the big clash between title rivals Chelsea and Manchester United.

Temperatures plunged to minus 19 degrees Celsius (minus two degrees Fahrenheit) in Pershore, west central England.

The Met Office national weather service said snow falls this month have been the heaviest for December since 1981.

If the second half of the month is as cold as the first, this will be the coldest December on record in Britain since 1910.

earlier related report
Snow forces flights cancellation at Paris' Roissy airport
Paris (AFP) Dec 19, 2010 - Some 40 percent of flights were to be cancelled at Paris's main Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport Sunday because of snow, avaiation authorities said.

Airport officials asked their European counterparts not to allow departures of Roissy-bound flights until 2:30 pm (1330 GMT), a source said.

Another source said some 20,000 passengers were patiently awaiting their flights at various Roissy terminals.

Some 450 aircraft were however able to take off with delays averaging one hour and 20 minutes. Incoming flights were running an hour late.

Snow had forced the closure of the airport's four runways Sunday morning and only two reopened by 2:00 pm (1300 GMT).

Orly airport, south of Paris, faced much less disruption with flights running 45 minutes late on average and several cancelled.

Only a few bus services in the French capital were operating early Sunday and none at all in the suburbs, with conditions expected to worsen as heavy snow continued to fall, a spokesman for the city transport authorities said.

earlier related report
Snow stops more than 500 flights in Frankfurt: airport
Berlin (AFP) Dec 19, 2010 - Frankfurt airport, Germany's busiest, cancelled more than 540 flights Sunday due to heavy snowfall which has created chaos throughout the European air traffic network, a spokeswoman said.

"The snow has been falling again for half an hour and is expected to continue until this evening," she added at about 1230 GMT, predicting further flights from the around 1,300 scheduled to be axed.

More than 1,000 stranded passengers had to spend the night on beds set up in the airport terminals, some for a second night in a row, while others found rooms in nearby hotels.

"The check-in areas are packed with passengers," the spokeswoman said.

Unusually heavy snowfall had already seen hundreds of flights scrapped Friday and Saturday, including several due to severe winter weather at other European airports, as the holiday travel season got underway.

Flag carrier Lufthansa advised passengers to use the German rail service, which was also hit by delays and cancellations.

State-owned rail company Deutsche Bahn asked travellers Sunday to avoid taking trains in the afternoon due to overbooking.

It added in a statement that it had set a lower speed limit for its trains due to icy conditions.

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