Victims of Eastern Europe's cold snap are rescued

Wed Feb 1st 2012

Rescue helicopters are airlifting supplies and evacuating dozens of people from snow-covered villages in Serbia and Bosnia, as the death toll from Eastern Europe's severe cold spell has risen to 79.

Temperatures have dropped as low as minus 32.5 C (minus 26.5 F) in some regions, causing power outages, traffic chaos and the closure of schools and nurseries.

The weather is so cold that some areas of the Black Sea have frozen near the Romanian coastline, and rare snowfalls have occurred on islands in the Adriatic Sea in Croatia.

Ukraine alone has reported 43 fatalities, many of the victims homeless people found dead on streets.

More than 720 other Ukrainians have been hospitalized with hypothermia and frostbite.