But European flights were almost back to normal after hundreds of passengers were trapped at the main Paris and Brussels airports overnight amid freezing chaos.

For the first time since 1981, swimmers arrived at the Serpentine in London's Hyde Park for the 100-yard (91-metre) open-air race to find the lake had frozen over.

It was the result of a cold snap that forecasters predict could make this the coldest December in Britain for more than 100 years.

On England's south coast, members of the Brighton Swimming Club took their annual Christmas dip in the Channel, where the temperature was a refreshing 3.3 degrees Celsius (38 degrees Fahrenheit).

On the Danish island of Bornholm even a tracked military vehicle failed to get through the snow to take a midwife to the village of Tejn so that a colleague had to take to her skis instead.

Rene Wang Hansen told AFP the midwife covered six or seven kilometres (four or five miles) to reach his daughter Gitte, who was later able to board the army's personnel carrier to be taken to hospital for the birth of a boy.

The Baltic island of some 43,000 people has been snowbound since Thursday and police have advised everyone to stay at home. Hundreds of tourists and other visitors have been put up in a gymnasium and a military barracks.

In Germany, another Baltic island, Ruegen, was also snowbound and no trains were running, but rail operator Deutsche Bahn said conditions were improving elsewhere and there were no major problems.

In the northwestern state of North Rhine-Westphalia police warned pedestrians to be on their guard after a woman was killed Friday by a falling branch in the forest of Gelsenkirchen.

In Moscow, icy rainfall onto frozen streets turned the Russian capital into a giant skating rink, and authorities warned residents to stay indoors while they de-iced the roads and pavements.

"Weather conditions are very difficult in the capital. When it (the rain) falls onto the ground, it turns into a layer of ice because of the negative temperatures," local government spokesman Igor Pergamenshik was quoted as saying by Russian media.

Airlines took advantage of fewer Christmas Day flights to clear runways and the backlog of passengers, some of whom had waited for days to leave.

About 200 travellers woke up on Christmas morning at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport after authorities laid on what entertainment they could on a night which is traditionally an occasion for family get-togethers round a groaning table.

Departure screens showed nearly all flights due to leave on time, as staff folded away the camp beds that had been provided along with food, Christmas toys, a Santa Claus and a Catholic mass for the faithful.

"The children have presents, we have things to eat and drink," said Beatrice Clavel, stranded with her husband Didier and their two children.

"All that's missing is a good shower."

The problems at the airport were compounded by a strike by workers at France's main anti-freeze factory, but conditions improved when supplies arrived from abroad.

Transport Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet announced an inquiry into the airport's handling of its glycol stocks and said officials had to learn from experience, particularly with regard to information for passengers.

Virtually no public transport ran in Britain as usual on Christmas Day, not even Eurostars to and from the continent, but trains in France were back to normal, though high-speed services were still delayed by speed restrictions.

In contrast to the chilly conditions across Europe, Bulgaria experienced record highs of up to 20 degrees Celsius in some central parts, way above the seasonal average which is below zero.

earlier related report
Christmas chaos in Europe as snow strands thousands
Paris (AFP) Dec 25, 2010 - Thousands of travellers were stranded at the main Paris airport Saturday after hundreds of Christmas flights were cancelled, as freezing weather and widespread snowfalls caused travel chaos across Europe.

About 400 flights in and out of Roissy-Charles de Gaulle were scrapped, with some 30,000 travellers plans disrupted by the cancellations and delays, said the airport's director Patrice Hardel.

Flights in Belgium and Germany were also affected and motorists stayed off the roads as western Europe battled the latest cold snap.

"Since Roissy came into being, we've never seen anything like this," Pierre Graff, the head of Aeroports de Paris, the group that runs the airport, told RTL radio.

The snow that had hit the airport and the freezing weather was "exceptional", he added.

In all, 400 flights were cancelled Friday at Roissy, said a civil aviation spokesman, which was at least three times fewer than originally feared.

They expected to return to normal Saturday as the weather improved, but for many passengers their Christmases had been ruined.

While local people had returned to their homes and other travellers stayed in nearby hotels, either at their own expense or that of their airline, there were still 200 passengers stuck at the airport itself early Saturday.

They were seeing in Christmas on camp beds and under blankets.

That was nevertheless down from the 2,000 forced to sleep there overnight Thursday and who were evacuated Friday from the airport's Terminal 2E because of a build-up of snow on the roof.

The collapse of a section of that terminal's roof in May 2004 shortly after it opened, killed four people.

The remaining stranded passengers were handed out meals and the children received a visit -- and presents -- from Father Christmas.

Junior transport minister Thierry Mariani visited exhausted travellers at the airport just before midnight on Christmas Eve, a night after his boss Transport Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet.

He told AFP airports were struggling to deal with the third bout of ice this month, a problem compounded by a strike by workers at France's main anti-freeze factory.

However, conditions at the airport improved after a planeload of glycol arrived from the United States and a truck transported several tonnes of anti-freeze from Germany.

"I'm so tired that I no longer have the strength to be angry," said Frenchwoman Zoe Stephanou, 45. "My flight to Milan has been cancelled twice. The first when there was no snow."

The cold hit air, rail and road transport across a swathe of Europe, with thousands of travellers forced to spend the night in trains or barracks, on ferries or in airports as the snow piled up.

In France's northern Somme region meanwhile, around 40 passengers spent the night on a train stuck in the snow, with the Red Cross bringing them blankets and hot drinks.

Deep drifts blocked many minor roads in the north and east, and snow also caused power cuts for around 10,000 French households, national grid authority ERDF said.

Between 10 and 20 centimetres (four and eight inches) of snow fell overnight in Belgium, sowing chaos on the roads, with many buses and taxis in the capital Brussels unable to drive on snow-blocked streets and flights delayed.

Belgian trains were hit with severe delays as many railway employees were unable to make it to work, operator Infrabel said.

At Belgium's main airport in Brussels, only one runway was usable and many flights were delayed, with the defence ministry supplying camp beds for stranded passengers.

More snow was expected across Germany, after several trains ground to a halt overnight as service was cut between Hanover and Berlin, the national railway Deutsche Bahn said.

The country's third largest airport, in Duesseldorf, was shut down early Friday, a spokeswoman for flag carrier Lufthansa told AFP, although it reopened in the afternoon.

Two municipal swimming pool roofs collapsed under the weight of the snow, without causing any casualties, in the city of Aachen near the Belgian and Dutch borders.

Police said a 47-year-old woman was killed when a snow laden branch fell on her in a forest in northwestern Germany.

Hundreds of tourists on the Danish island of Bornholm were forced to spend the night in an army barracks or on the ferry after heavy snow overnight.

In Britain, where heavy snow last week caused widespread transport chaos, meteorologists warned of further snow and widespread icy roads in northeast England and eastern Scotland.

Train services were disrupted across large parts of the country, hitting travellers heading home for Christmas, although Heathrow airport was largely back to normal after the chaos of recent days.

In Ireland, Dublin airport reopened Friday after being closed for much of Thursday, stranding about 40,000 passengers.

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