BUCHAREST: Heavy snow blanketed Romania and Bulgaria on Thursday, cutting power to hundreds of towns and villages, blocking roads and forcing some Black Sea ports to close.

Meteorologists said the snow, which had been falling for two days, was expected to continue throughout Romania until late on Thursday, with temperatures expected to fall as low as minus 16 degrees Celsius. After that, further snow was forecast only for the south.

The state news agency Rompres said Bucharest’s main Henri Coanda airport, which was closed earlier in the day grounding 1,000 passengers, reopened at 2:30 p.m. (1230 GMT). The capital’s second airport, Baneasa, was scheduled to resume flights at 3 p.m. (1300 GMT).

The customs post at Giurgiu on the Danube river border with Bulgaria was closed and the Foreign Ministry said 1,300 Romanian tourists were stranded in the neighbouring country because of the weather.

In Bulgaria, two days of heavy snow and high winds cut electricity supplies to more than 300 towns and villages, the country’s Disaster and Emergency Ministry said. More than 30 villages were without supplies of drinking water.

In Romania, television showed traffic jams on snow-covered roads and blocked trains. In Bucharest, the mayor appealed to residents to help to clear a layer of up to 50 cm of snow and use public transport rather than private cars.—Reuters