Hundreds of drivers in Britain spent the night trapped in cars or sheltered in pubs and schools after heavy snowfall hit much of the country.

An overnight low of minus 15.4°C was recorded in the Scottish Highlands, the coldest UK temperature since 2012. Even usually temperate London woke on Friday to a blanket of snow.

Police advised motorists not to travel unless necessary.

In southwestern England, more than 100 people spent the night at the Jamaica Inn — a remote 18th-century pub made famous by Daphne du Maurier's novel — after cars became stuck on a nearby road.

Stranded motorist Paul Drye said "people were still arriving until the early hours of the morning, people who had left their cars and walked, a couple miles some of them".