MOSCOW, Nov 30: Doctors urged Muscovites to take precautions against respiratory and heart ailments on Saturday as temperatures plunging towards minus 27 Celsius gripped the city of 10 million.

Medical services reported five deaths from 34 cases of hypothermia, nearly all involving homeless or drunk Muscovites.

Plumes of smoke hung in an unusually cloudless sky and streets were uncharacteristically empty for a Saturday.

Forecasters predicted already freezing temperatures would plunge on Saturday night to minus 27 Celsius.

The cold snap and Russians’ preoccupation with changes in atmospheric pressure prompted a flood of advice from doctors.

“Leaving a warm building and going outside into the cold street, particularly with a wind, can cause spasms of coronary blood vessels,” cardiologist Yuri Belenkov told NTV television.

“Patients with angina should take tablets before going outside and take medicines for widening arteries.”

Deaths from cold are commonplace in Moscow, though recent winters have seen few steep dips in temperature. The daily Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid ran a page of ways of coping with the cold and staying out of trouble, advising readers to stay off the street if they drank.—Reuters