WARSAW, Jan 30: Freezing weather continued to take its toll across Europe, with the number of dead in Poland rising above the 200 mark since the start of winter. “Fifteen people died of cold this weekend. The death toll this winter is therefore already at 214,” more than the 190 who died of cold during the entire winter last year, Grazyna Puchalska, a spokeswoman for the national police, told AFP.

Eighty-seven of those who died were homeless people, Puchalska said.

Temperatures fell as low as minus 35 Celsius (minus 31 Fahrenheit) in parts of Poland last week. While they have become milder this week, temperatures are still below freezing at night in most of the country.

The weather is suspected as a cause of both the collapse of an exhibition centre in southern Poland on Saturday, and the deaths of many of the 62 victims as rescuers tried to reach them.—AFP