Aid workers warn that sharp drop in temperatures in parts of northern Europe this month has put the homeless at serious risk.
German homeless aid group BAGW said Friday that four people have frozen to death since a blast of Arctic air brought subzero temperatures and heavy snowfall across much of the country last week.
Authorities in the southern city of Nuremberg said a homeless woman was found with a newborn baby at a temperature of minus 15 degrees Celsius (5 degrees Fahrenheit) early Friday morning.
A police patrol saw the 20-year-old woman, a companion and the baby in a ventilation grill outside a subway station. The mother and child were taken to a hospital for warming and observation, the dpa news agency reported.
Freezing temperatures have also caused numerous accidents on roads and waterways. Police in southwestern Germany said a 49-year-old man was crushed to death Thursday when the tractor he was driving slipped and overturned in a frozen field.
In western France, freezing rains turned roads into treacherous ice chutes. Brittany authorities said the smaller roads linking towns and villages in the largely rural region were unusable and urged people to stay home. The circulation of large trucks was prohibited.
The German Red Cross has warned people to be careful when skating or walking on frozen lakes and rivers after several adults and children fell through the ice and had to be rescued in recent days.
Andreas Paatz, the head of the group’s water rescue service, said that many people don’t realize that ice in standing water must be at least 15 centimeters (5.9 inches) thick and in running water 20 centimeters (7.9 inches) thick to support one person.
Authorities in northern Germany have deployed icebreakers for the first time in years to break through passages through frozen shipping channels.
In neighboring Holland, skating fans flocked to the ice on Friday, causing a headache for authorities trying to enforce social distancing measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Authorities blocked roads near some popular skating spots and ordered skaters to get out of dangerously thin ice in some spots.
Emergency services had to rescue at least one skater who sank into the ice that covered a lake next to the Dutch parliament buildings in The Hague.
In the northern German city of Verden, police ordered about 50 skaters and hockey players to get off the ice, saying it was too thin and they weren’t wearing face masks.
The cold weather that has gripped northern Europe is forecast to make its way to the southeast in the coming days. The Greek meteorological service predicted that Athens could see snowfall.
.
She is a freelance blogger, writer, and speaker, and writes for various entertainment magazines.