Snowstorms and icy winds continued to sweep across UK and most of the European mainland as the freeze triggered transport chaos, cancellation of hundreds of flights in the continent ahead of Christmas holidays, as the death toll from the cold jumped to 80.
Tens of thousands of people were stranded at airports across Europe and an equal number by the cancellations of London to Paris trains. However, after three days of suspension, Eurostar resumed its high-speed rail service linking Britain, France and Belgium to clear a backlog of 75,000 stranded passengers.
Much of Europe was bracing for another day of heavy snow and plunging temperatures promising a white Christmas for the people.
Most of the airports in England were snowed in and British Airways said all its domestic and European flights out of Heathrow, Luton, Gatwick and other airports were cancelled.
London underground trains reported delay on most of them as heavy snow and blizzards were reported from Scotland and northern England.
A car veered off an icy road and hit rails in the Paris suburbs derailing a commuter train and injuring 36 people. The incident led to the evacuation of 300 people from the train.
Another train in the Croatian capital Zagreb had an accident in whiteout conditions leaving 52 people injured.
The freeze was at its most biting in Poland, where authorities said 42 people had died, most of them homeless, of cold over the last three days after temperatures plunged to minus 20 degree Celsius. Ukraine reported 27 deaths while six people were
killed in cold-related accidents in Germany and three in Austria.
Flights were also cancelled in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, and express highways connecting most of the European cities were in knee-deep snow.
Bavaria in Germany reported temperatures as low as minus 33.6 degrees Celsius.
Authorities in France, England and Belgium worked all night to restore the breakdown of the Eurostar service under the channel, whose crippling symbolised European suffering.
The train started their first run in three days to clear more than 2,000 people stuck in the tunnel under the sea. The train running company only announced resumption of a skeleton service for Tuesday.
French transport ministry has ordered an investigation into the breakdown, which Eurostar said had been caused by trains unable to handle snowstorms and freezing temperature, outside the warm temperature in the tunnel.
The Dutch rail network was almost at a standstill with the railway company advising commuters to stay at home.
Frankfurt, one of Europe's busiest airport along with Schipol and Heathrow resumed flights after a 12-hour shutdown.
Italy sent hundreds of soldiers into the streets of Milan to clear the unusual heavy snow. In Moscow too, authorities sent out 13,000 dump trucks to clear the roads as chronic traffic jams built up.
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