Heavy snow hits Greece and Turkey

Heavy snow and freezing temperatures closed schools, disrupted traffic and grounded airplanes in Greece and Turkey today.

Heavy snow and freezing temperatures closed schools, disrupted traffic and grounded airplanes in Greece and Turkey today.

Athens was covered in several centimetres of snow, and the outskirts were cut off due to heavy snow and ice on the roads following two days of snowfall. The Acropolis was also covered by a layer of snow as temperatures hovered around freezing.

Only 35 flights landed or took off at Athens International Airport this morning, and 160 flights were cancelled.

Many shops, offices and businesses are closed for the day, with few pedestrians on the streets of the city centre. Police said more than 200 car crashes had been reported in the past 36 hours.

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In Turkey, schools and universities shut across much of the country, and the Bosphorus strait has been closed to transit shipping in the north-south direction since yesterday morning.