Schools are shut and weather agencies predict the brutal cold will continue as the death toll from the freezing snap rose to around 48 since last Friday, with icy conditions causing accidents and endangering vulnerable rough sleepers. 

In the latest deaths, a 60-year-old man perished after falling into a lake in London, while an elderly Dutch skater plunged through cracked ice in the western village of Hank. 

The victims also include 18 people killed in Poland, six in the Czech Republic, five in Lithuania, four each in France and Slovakia, two each in Italy, Serbia, Romania and Slovenia and one in Spain. The Siberian cold front – dubbed the “Beast from the East” in Britain, “Siberian bear” by the Dutch and the “snow cannon” by Swedes – has blanketed huge swathes of the region in snow and played havoc with transport networks. 

In Scotland, which saw Glasgow airport closed until Thursday morning and most flights cancelled from Edinburgh, emergency services struggled to help drivers stranded for hours on a major motorway, with images showing scores of vehicles trapped in the snow late on Wednesday. 

“This is a very difficult situation but everything possible is being done,” Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon said on Twitter. Hundreds of people were trapped in their cars overnight on the M80 between Glasgow and Edinburgh and were being advised to stay where they were until police could get to them. “At its height an estimated 1,000 vehicles were at a standstill, (with) tailbacks for 8 miles north and south bound,” Police Scotland said. Further blasts of wintry weather are expected, with authorities in Ireland and normally-balmy southern France among those to have issued red alerts late Wednesday. 

Homeless people account for many of the dead, and cities across Europe have been racing to open emergency shelters to protect people sleeping rough. In Germany, the national homeless association urged shelters to open during the day and not just at night.