Snowstorm takes aim at US north-east – in pictures

A boy throws a snow ball in the air as snow begins to accumulate in the theatre district in Boston Photograph: Brian Snyder/Reuters

A group of men help push a sports car up a snow-covered street in the Old Port section of Portland, Maine, early Friday Photograph: Robert F Bukaty/AP

A woman walks through wind, snow and sleet on Broadway as the rain turns to snow Friday afternoon. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Airlines have cancelled thousands of flightsahead of the storm Photograph: Matt Rourke/AP

Riders wait in a Portland, Maine, bus stop during the storm Friday afternoon Photograph: Robert F Bukaty/AP

Andreas Frank and Jackson Greeley play ice hockey on the duck pond in the Public Garden in Boston Photograph: DOMINICK REUTER/EPA

Mary Ann Bova walks along a slippery snow-covered sidewalk in Buffalo, New York Photograph: David Duprey/AP

Salt is thrown on a sidewalk as Manhattan prepares for the storm Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The storm begins to change from rain to snow mid-day Friday in Manhattan Photograph: Angelo Merendino/Corbis

A man throws salt for the snow at the Paulus Hook pier during the arrival of a winter storm in Exchange Place, New Jersey. Photograph: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters

A man battles wind, rain and sleet in the early hours of the major winter storm in New York City Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

A woman in Brooklyn visits a neighbourhood supermarket to stock up on supplies on Friday Photograph: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis

People walk along the Brooklyn Bridge in the snow and sleet in the early hours of the storm Friday morning Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Boston mayor Thomas M Menino, surrounded by city officials, briefs the media and citizens of Boston on emergency preparedness at city hall Photograph: Darren McCollester/Getty Images

Sanitation workers use tractors to pile up salt at a depot in New York. The city's 1,800 sanitation trucks have 250,000 tons of salt at their disposal Photograph: Mary Altaffer/AP

Jack Percoco of Cambridge, Massachusetts, reaches into depleted shelves for milk at a supermarket in Somerville as the Boston area plans for up to three feet of snow, the most in the city's history Photograph: Elise Amendola/AP

A pedestrian walks into wind-driven snow in Boston at mid-day Friday Photograph: Brian Snyder/Reuters

Snow begins to stick on a roadway in Wrentham, Massachusetts, around noon on Friday Photograph: Matt Cambpell/EPA

Rasmus Thomsen of Denmark works on his computer as he waits at Boston Logan International Airport after flights were cancelled Photograph: Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Reuters