Thousands of tourists stranded in Europe as snow and deep freeze cancels flights

Thousands of tourists found themselves stranded in northern Finland on Sunday as extreme cold forced the cancellation of flights at Kittilä airport.

Temperatures plummeted to a staggering minus 37 degrees Celsius (minus 34.6 degrees Fahrenheit) at the airport on Sunday morning. This severe chill, which followed several days of similar frigid conditions, made crucial operations such as aircraft de-icing exceptionally difficult, according to Finland's national public broadcaster Yle.

The deep freeze is set to persist in Kittilä, located in the sparsely populated Finnish Lapland, with the Finnish Meteorological Institute forecasting temperatures nearing minus 40C (minus 40F) for Monday. While residents of Finland are accustomed to harsh winter weather, this year's cold snap is notably more severe than usual, impacting vast swathes of northern, central, and eastern Europe.

Heavy snowfall, high winds and icy roads have made travel difficult in parts of Europe.

In Germany, train passengers were still experiencing long delays and cancellations Sunday after rail operator Deutsche Bahn shut down all service in the north of the country on Friday due to strong snowfall.

Authorities announced that all schools would remain closed and switch to online classes on Monday in North Rhine-Westphalia, the country's most populous western state, after forecasts of icy roads across the region.

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In the Baltic countries of Estonia and Lithuania, drivers were asked to postpone all nonessential travel because of expected blizzards, while neighboring Latvia issued a snow alert for the west of the country.

In France, parts of north-west were battered by the strong winds of Storm Goretti which also caused disruption across the UK.

No major damage was reported, but some 320,000 homes were left without power at noon on Friday.

Most of the outages were concentrated in the Normandy region.

France's national weather service, Meteo-France, had issued weather warnings ahead of the storm, urging residents to remain home.

A major road that leads from Prague to Germany was blocked by trucks at two places near the German border for hours while public transportation in the Czech capital came to a standstill in some parts of the city.

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In neighbouring Germany, rail operator Deutsche Bahn halted its long-distance rail service for the north of the country, stranding thousands of travellers.

Many roads and rail connections elsewhere in the country were also affected by high winds and heavy snowfall. Public bus transportation was cancelled in many regions and schools stayed shut in some areas.

Two people died in a head-on collision between two cars in Bavaria, when one of the cars skidded, presumably because of the winter weather. In the Upper Palatinate region, a driver was killed when his car veered off the road and crashed into a tree, German news agency dpa reported.

Ferry services on the North Sea coast of Lower Saxony have largely come to a standstill, as several islands became inaccessible by boat because of strong easterly winds, dpa reported.