Nearly 12 000 people were left without heat in a town outside of Moscow on Monday after a major hot-water pipe ruptured, a federal emergency official said.
The incident in Podolsk, just south of the Russian capital, was the latest disruption to heating supplies in Russia as much of the country suffers through the seventh day of brutal Arctic temperatures.
Viktor Beltsov, a spokesperson for the emergency situations ministry, said the pipeline failed at about 9.45am local time, shutting down heat and hot water for more than two dozen buildings, including a kindergarten.
Most Russian towns and cities are heated through a centralised municipal heating system.
Also on Monday, Russian news agencies reported that seven people died of exposure over the weekend in Moscow, pushing the nationwide death toll from the cold snap to nearly 50.
This winter is the coldest in Moscow since 1978/79, when temperatures reached minus 38 degrees Celsius, and the cold has severely strained Russia’s crumbling infrastructure.
Electricity use has surged to record levels as towns and cities struggle to keep indoor temperatures up and Russians turn to supplemental heating sources, including electric radiators, to keep warm.
The cold wave that swept into the Russian capital last Monday has also pushed into eastern Europe, killing people in Estonia, Poland, Romania, Moldova and elsewhere.
At least three people died in north-eastern Romania after temperatures plunged as low as minus 25 degrees Celsius, Romanian news reports said on Monday.
Poland
At least 21 people died from exposure over the weekend in Poland as the Arctic front drove temperatures down to a bone-chilling minus 32 degrees Celsius, reports said on Monday.
The deaths bring to 144 the number of fatalities due to exposure in Poland since October 1 2005, according to police statistics. Last winter’s death toll was 190.
Homeless persons continued to be most vulnerable and alcohol played a lethal role in about 90% of the cases.
The Arctic front saw temperatures plunge to minus 32 degrees Celsius in areas of Poland overnight from Sunday to Monday.
Daytime temperatures on Monday were expected to range between minus 11 and minus 20 degrees Celsius, increasing the grim likelihood of more cold-related fatalities.
Germany
Germany recorded its coldest winter temperatures this year on Monday with two people having frozen to death in the frigid weather, officials said.
The lowest temperature was recorded in southern Bavaria’s Funtensee, which reached minus 33,8 degrees Celsius. In the capital, Berlin, temperatures hit minus 20 degrees Celsius, weather officials said.
A 74-year-old woman in eastern Saxony-Anahlt state froze to death after falling while getting her mail, police said. Joggers in the same state discovered a 48-year-old man frozen to death in a field near the town of Salzwedel.
Temperatures are expected to hit similar lows on Monday night before starting to slowly rise from Tuesday, weather forecasters said.
Turkey
Snow reached Istanbul and temperatures in the east of Turkey dropped to minus 30 degrees Celsius, Turkish media reported on Monday.
In an accident caused by the icy conditions, at least eight people died and 12 were injured, four seriously, when a bus veered off the road in the centre of the capital, Ankara. Snow fell in Ankara overnight, but main roads remained open.
In Istanbul, Turkey’s biggest city, which also saw snow falls early on Monday, several universities were closed and authorities cancelled boat services over the Bosphorus separating the city’s European and Asian sides.
About 2 000 municipal road workers were at work trying to unblock roads and bridges.
Northern and eastern Turkey have experienced heavy snowfalls and plummeting temperatures since Saturday, cutting off about 3 700 villages and disrupting electricity supplies to several hundred of them. In Ankara, snow is predicted to fall until Thursday.
A man died of exposure after walking in snow-covered mountains in the north of the country.
Fires in Australia
Meanwhile, one firefighter was killed and three others injured while battling one of several wildfires blazing across southern Australia, police said on Monday.
The fire officers were heading toward a blaze about 90km north-east of the Victoria state capital, Melbourne, when their tanker rolled over at an intersection, police spokesperson Greg Jenkins said. The three injured firefighters were taken to a local hospital with minor injuries.
About 10 000 firefighters were working to contain more than two dozen wildfires that have killed thousands of livestock and left two people dead in a car accident.
Devastated farmers began the grim task on Monday of scouring their blackened paddocks for dead and injured livestock.
Sheep and cattle losses from the fires were expected to reach the tens of thousands.
So far, the fires since Thursday have caused an estimated Aus$130 000 ($98 000) in property damage.
Southern Australia’s north and west have experienced a heat wave during the past week, with temperatures well above average for January, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported on Monday.
In the past few days, temperatures in centres such as Port Lincoln and Whyalla have been in the high 30s to low 40s degrees Celsius, with Port Augusta regularly reaching the mid-40s. — Sapa-AP, Sapa-dpa, Sapa-AFP