Heavy snowfall in the French Alps left some 15,000 drivers stranded overnight on Sunday, forcing many to pass the night in their cars and prompting officials to open emergency shelters.
The snow and ice hit as a rush of holidaymakers were heading to and leaving from ski resorts in the Savoie region in southeastern France, where authorities set up shelters in at least 12 towns.
The snow, freezing rain and icy conditions caused the death of a 27-year-old man whose car slid into a ravine in the Belledonne mountain range. France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve in a statement urged drivers “to exercise the utmost caution” and asked those who could delay their trips to do so.
The country declared an orange weather alert — one step under the maximum red alert — in 19 regional departments. One driver stuck in his car on a freeway in the Alps with four passengers, Kevin Clavel, told AFP: “To go 80 miles it’s taken us 10 hours.”
France’s meteorological services said they expected more snowfall and “significant re-freezing” overnight and warned of slippery roads. Elsewhere in France, it was wind and not snow that wrought havoc for holiday travellers.
Storms packing gusts of up to 100 miles per hour forced the temporary closure of France’s port of Calais on the English Channel and the suspension of car ferries to and from Britain.