BEIJING, Jan 21: Unusually heavy snowfall in central China was blamed for at least 15 deaths and stranding hundreds of thousands of people ahead of the peak Lunar New Year travel season, state media said on Monday. Frigid temperatures caused pipes to burst, leading to water shortages for thousands of residents, the Xinhua News Agency and newspapers reported.

Power lines carrying electricity from the massive Three Gorges Dam to China’s commercial center, Shanghai, snapped under the weight of ice and snow, state broadcaster CCTV said.

Heavy snow damaged thousands of homes, and at least one person was crushed to death when a roof collapsed at a gas station, the reports said. Xinhua said that collapsing roofs killed a total of six people, and that nine others died in snow-related traffic accidents.

Snow closed highways and forced the cancellation of scores of flights in the provinces of Hubei, Henan, Shandong, Jiangsu and Anhui, where snowfall in some areas was the heaviest in 17 years.

Xinhua said that in Hubei, hardest hit by the extreme weather, 300,000 people had their travels delayed.—AP