COPENHAGEN, Jan 21: Heavy snow, gusty winds and freezing cold continued to cause chaos across northern Europe on Saturday, disrupting air, road, ferry and rail traffic and even affecting royals trying to get to the christening of Denmark’s new prince in Copenhagen.

The region, which saw temperatures drop to as low as minus 42.6 Celsius in the most northern parts, is accustomed to cold wintry weather and is well-equipped to cope with the conditions.

The ice and heavy snow especially wreaked havoc in Denmark however, where heavy delays at Copenhagen airport continued after it was forced to close completely for more than two hours late on Friday because it was impossible to deice aircraft wings.

Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) cancelled virtually all flights from the airport on Saturday and said many flights would be cut on Sunday as well.

Cancelled flights forced Norwegian royals attending Saturday’s christening of Australian-born Princess Mary and Danish Crown Prince Frederik’s son to jump on an overnight train to Copenhagen from Oslo.

Thousands of motorists were also stranded for nearly a day before Denmark’s Store Baelt bridge, which connects the country’s central island of Fyn with the eastern island where Copenhagen is located, reopened early Saturday afternoon.

The bridge shut down 22 hours earlier when large blocks of ice began tumbling from the suspension cables into the roadway.

Icy roads and snow also caused numerous accidents across Denmark, and late Friday towing company Falck reported that it had made more than 2,800 trips out to rescue drivers who had slipped off the road or were caught in snowdrifts.

By Saturday, the more than 100 trains that had ground to a halt the day before were however back on track.

In northern Norway meanwhile, some 700 buildings had reportedly been damaged by heavy storms as strong winds ripped off roofs and smashed entire buildings, and at the most, about 30,000 households were without power.

Several roads, motorways and ferry routes were also out of service in the north and a number of delays and cancellations were reported at local airports.

In addition, 1,100 employees working on development of the Snoehvit gas field in the Barents Sea were evacuated late Thursday because of the extreme weather and the Statoil group said they would not return to work until Monday at the earliest.—AFP