BERLIN (AP) – A snowstorm and high winds pounded North and West Germany on Sunday, forcing trains to cancel trips and leading to hundreds of road accidents. Police said 28 people were injured on icy roads.
The German weather service DWD urged people to stay at home, and authorities took homeless people to warm shelters amid freezing temperatures.
National train operator Deutsche Bahn said major train routes between Hamburg and Hanover, Berlin and the west have been canceled as snowdrifts accumulated on the tracks and power lines. Some train connections in the east were also canceled, although most of the snow fell in the northwest.
Police in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia said early Sunday on Sunday that they had counted 222 accidents due to bad weather conditions since Saturday afternoon. They said two of the 28 people had been seriously injured.
In the western city of Münster, one of the hardest hit places, there was so much snow on the streets that ambulances could no longer drive and all public transport was shut down. More than 12 inches (30 centimeters) of snow had fallen, accumulating up to 1 meter in some parts, and more snow was expected to fall on Sunday.
In Wuppertal, in western Germany, firefighters had to rescue six passengers from the city’s famous elevated railway after a train stopped running due to icy conditions. They had to climb ladders to reach the people on the train and help them get to the ground, Dpa reported.
City councils in the western town of Hagen walked the streets at night, waking up homeless people who slept outside and taking them to shelters, the German DPA news agency reported. In Berlin, the capital’s largest shelter, a tent city on the outskirts, was evacuated early on Saturday to make sure people don’t freeze to death in freezing temperatures.
While the west of the country was freezing, southern Germany experienced balmy, spring-like temperatures.
The unusual weather and temperature divide was caused by a polar vortex pushing icy air from the Arctic to Northern Germany, much like a low-pressure front brings wet, warm weather from the Southwest, the DWD said.
In the Netherlands, much of the country was covered with snow, forcing the government to cancel a weekly crisis meeting to discuss the coronavirus pandemic. Train services were stopped and Schiphol warned passengers about possible flight cancellations.
The national broadcaster NOS showed images of a snowball fight in the early morning with residents and police on the Amsterdam Dam.
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Mike Corder contributed reporting from Wekerom, The Netherlands.