Snowstorm causes travel chaos in Europe

BERLIN — Disruption to rail traffic in parts of southern Germany continued on Sunday due to snowfall, a day after flights at Munich airport were suspended.

On Sunday morning, Germany's second largest airport said on its website that flights had resumed but added that some "disruption to air traffic" would continue and advised passengers to check with their carriers well in advance before traveling to the airport.

In total, 760 flights were affected, an airport spokesperson told AFP on Saturday.

Trains to and from Munich's central station were also halted, Germany's national railway said, advising passengers to delay or reroute their journeys. The news agency Dpa reported that some passengers in Munich and the nearby city of Ulm spent Friday night on trains due to the halt.

In Munich, no buses or trams were operating as of Saturday afternoon, the local transit authority said. Some subway and regional train lines were also affected by the weather.

Downed trees left "many thousands" of people without power across the state of Bavaria, the utility company Bayernwerk told Dpa.

Games postponed

Officials for Germany's Bundesliga also announced that a soccer match between Bayern Munich and Union Berlin, originally scheduled for Saturday afternoon in Munich, was postponed.

Police in Lower Bavaria, the region northwest of Munich, said they responded to 350 incidents related to snow and ice between Friday night and early on Saturday.

In Austria and Switzerland the new snowfall led officials to raise the alarm about the danger of avalanches. The provinces of Tyrol and Vorarlberg in western Austria raised their avalanche warnings to the second-highest level after the region received up to 50 centimeters of snow overnight.

The Austrian railway company OeBB said on Saturday afternoon that various stretches of its routes across the country were closed due to the storm.

In the Czech Republic, the major highways and some other roads were blocked for hours, trains and public transportation faced delays and cancellations, and over 15,000 households were without power.

The key D1 highway that links the capital Prague with the second largest city of Brno came to a standstill for hours after an accident that caused a 20-kilometer-long line of trucks. Traffic jams also hit other parts of the highway as well as the D5 that links Prague with Germany.

A number of high-speed and regional trains had to stop in the southern part of the country as cross-border trains from neighboring Austria and Germany did not operate, and some roads were expected to remain closed for the day.

Agencies Via Xinhua