Homeless people in parts of Brussels will be detained overnight if they refuse shelter to protect them from sub-zero temperatures this week.
A weather front nicknamed the “beast from the east” has hit Europe, bringing snow and strong winds, adding a further chill factor. In Brussels, temperatures are set to fall as low as -10 degrees Celsius.
The mayor of Etterbeek, a Brussels neighbourhood that is home to many European Union offices, said he had asked police to take all homeless people to shelters even if they were unwilling.
“The mayor has authorised, in case of absolute necessity, the detention of homeless people who are acting in a way that would endanger their safety by refusing shelter,” Etterbeek council said.
The mayor of Brussels City, one of 19 councils that make up the greater Brussels region, said he had given similar orders to police and asked them to prioritise children sleeping outside.
Officials in Lithuania say this winter’s record low temperatures claimed the lives of at least three people over the weekend in Vilnius. Seven people have received treatment for substantial frostbite to their hands and feet in the past few days.
Estonia’s state weather service is forecasting the cold spell to remain in the Baltic region throughout this week, with temperatures expected to drop to -29 degrees Celsius.
The impact of the cold weather has been felt across the continent, although not as severely as in the Baltic states. Schools have been disrupted across Italy and Romans woke to the rare sight of the capital city covered in snow on Monday.
It was the heaviest snowfall in Rome in six years and the largest for the end of February in decades. The city, which is not well equipped to deal with snow emergencies, asked other areas to send in snowploughs to help clear roads.
Only one runway was operating at Rome’s main airport, Fiumicino. Its second airport, Ciampino, was closed overnight allowing workers to clear a runway so it could reopen on Monday morning.
Italian aviation officials said Ryanair, which uses Ciampino as its Italian hub, cancelled all flights to and from the airport but most of Italy’s other main airports were operating with delays to some flights.
The UK’s Meteorological Office said: “The high pressure over Scandinavia bringing the cold easterly flow is expected to remain in place for several days.”
Italian police asked residents to stay at home if possible, but that did not stop people taking the opportunity to enjoy a snowball fight in St Peter’s Square in the Vatican.
On Sunday night, temperatures in Moscow dropped to nearly -20C, the coldest night of the Russian winter so far. Roman Vilfand, the chief of the Russian meteorological office, said Muscovites should brace themselves for frosty weather in early March and could only “count on the warmth of the soul”, not higher temperatures outside.
France’s national meteorological service Météo-France warned that temperatures would be between 8C and 10C below the average for the season.
In Germany, meteorologists reported a record cold for this winter of -27C on Zugspitze, the country’s highest peak.
In the UK, the bookmaker Coral slashed the odds on March being recorded as the country’s coldest ever month. “It’s going to be a bitterly cold start to March, with the cold showing no signs of letting up and we think there’s now a real possibility of it being a record-breaking month for the low temperatures,” said the firm’s Harry Aitkenhead.
In Romania, where temperatures plunged to -8C on Monday, the mayor of Bucharest, Gabriela Firea, announced schools would be closed in the capital for at least two days. Schools were also closed elsewhere in Romania.
In Croatia, about 1,000 soldiers joined efforts to clear the snow in the worst-affected areas where more than 1.5 metres of snowfall has been reported. Schools have been closed in the north-west and heavy vehicles have been banned from all roads leading toward the coast.
