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WORLD> Europe
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Snow shock for French port of Marseille
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-01-08 11:35 MARSEILLE -- France's second city of Marseille was paralysed Wednesday by a freak snowstorm, stunning locals accustomed to balmy Mediterranean winters, and causing havoc for road and air traffic.
Some 550 drivers were stranded for hours on highways outside the port city, emergency services said, as snow fell through the morning to form a coat 12 centimetres (five inches) thick for the first time in 20 years. Snow on the runways closed the local Marignane airport and cut high-speed rail lines to and from Marseille, while some 12,000 households were left without electricity across the region. Caught off guard, regional officials closed all highways to traffic, while Marseille city hall suspended bus and tramway services and advised residents to stay at home. Local residents -- who last saw snow on the ground in Marseille in 1987 -- teetered carefully along the ice-covered streets, snapping pictures of the carpet of white. Youths took to the streets for giant snowball fights, while others carried their sledges and snowboards up to the city's emblematic Notre-Dame-de-La-Garde basilica, whizzing down to the historic port. Temperatures tumbled well below freezing across France and the rest of Europe on Tuesday night, hitting a 10-year low of minus nine degrees Celsius in Paris. |
