Icy temperatures blasted Britain on Thursday, with Scotland bearing the brunt of the freezing weather.

Temperatures fell to minus 15 degrees Celsius (five Fahrenheit) in some parts of Scotland on Wednesday night and airports including Glasgow warned of possible delays and cancellations.

Passengers were advised to check with their airline before travelling to the airport.

Budget airline easyJet cancelled 16 services on Thursday, while London Heathrow airport warned of "some disruption". Passengers travelling to Stansted airport were advised to allow extra time for their journeys.

On Wednesday, a Ryanair passenger jet with 127 people on board skidded off the runway at Prestwick airport, west of Glasgow, after hitting ice.

Meanwhile, motorists group the Automobile Association warned Britons only to travel if absolutely necessary.

"Many roads today are expected to be very busy and dangerous due to snow and black ice. If drivers can reasonably delay any non-essential trips until Christmas Day or Boxing Day, the weather and traffic should be better." its president Edmund King said.

Forecasters at the Met Office issued severe weather warnings of "widespread icy roads" for much of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

In Spain's Canary Islands, thousands of holidaymakers were left stranded as heavy rain and wind forced airports there to close.

More than 4,000 passengers were stuck on the holiday islands of La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro, where the airports shut due to stormy conditions, said the airport management company AENA.

On La Palma, the most northwesterly of the Canary Islands, another 10,000 people were left without power.

Rainstorms also disrupted transport links in Spain's southwestern Andalucia region, where emergency services received nearly 600 calls to flooded homes, or to clear fallen trees or debris from roads and railways.

All but six of Spain's of 50 provinces were on bad weather alert on Thursday because of the strong winds and heavy rainfall.

The Eurostar rail service linking mainland Europe and Britain, which suffered days of chaos earlier in the week when its trains were affected by snow, was running to a "modified timetable".

Eurostar said it would run more than 90 percent of trains on Saturday and Sunday, when many Britons use it to travel to ski holidays in the French Alps.

In Russia, the former imperial capital of Saint Petersburg was covered in white by the heaviest snowfall to hit the city since 1881, local authorities said on Thursday.

St Petersburg council said 14 centimetres (5.5 inches) of snow had settled by Thursday evening.

The exceptional snowfall snarled traffic and more than doubled travel times in parts of the northwestern city, according to residents.

Officials deployed 1,216 snowploughs, 340 lorries and 1,144 workers to clear the snow.

burs-jf/ach

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