ALTHOUGH the UK is suffering from a harsh cold spell, conditions across much of Europe are even bleaker.
The death toll from the weather in eastern Europe has risen to 133, while some 11,000 villagers are stranded in mountainous areas of Serbia.
Many tourism hotspots in Europe are experiencing low temperatures, with minus 14C (6.8F) in Berlin, minus 17C (1.4F) in Prague, minus 8C (17.6F) in Paris, minus 13C (8.6F) in Stockholm and minus 20C (minus 4F) in Warsaw.
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Bosnian people wave to a helicopter crew as they wait for food supplies in a remote village, cut off by snow, near Sokolac, Bosnia
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A cyclist rides past the 19th century's Arco della Pace (Arch of Peace) in Milan, Italy, which has been hit by heavy snowfalls
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A young girl skates on the frozen canal at castle Nymphenburg in Munich, Germany
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A child runs past a wave protection dam covered in ice as the waters of the Black Sea are frozen near the shore in Constanta, Romania
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A man braves the bitter cold as he makes his way to exercise in a park in Moscow, Russia, where temperatures have fallen to -21 Celsius (-6 Fahrenheit)
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A tourist walks past icicles at the Partnachklamm gorge in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, southern Germany
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A man walks beside the Neris river in the Vilnius, Lithuania, as temperatures plummeted to -23 Celsius (-9 Fahrenheit)
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A man wrapped in a sleeping bag during near-freezing temperatures walks past a graffiti-covered wall in central Athens, Greece
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A child walks between stones covered in ice as the waters of the Black Sea are frozen near the shore in Constanta, Romania
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A man removes snow around a snow-covered vehicle in Yuzawa, Niigata prefecture, north of Tokyo, Japan
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A pedestrian walks past an ice-covered window on a winter's day in the Kosovo capital Pristina
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A Kosovo Albanian man strolls near the damn of the artificial lake of Badovac
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A woman walks along a bank of the Moscow River in Kolomenskoye park, Moscow, Russia
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People walk on the frozen shores of the Black Sea at dusk in Constanta, Romania
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A man walks on a sea wall covered in ice on the frozen shores of the Black Sea in Constanta, Romania
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Istanbul, Turkey, where heavy snow and cold weather reaching - 10 Celsius paralysed the city and closed several roads in eastern Turkey
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Cars, trucks and buses in the snow-blanketed financial and commercial Levent district in Istanbul, Turkey
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Stadium staff remove snow from the pitch for the Serie A match between FC Internazionale Milano and US Citta di Palermo at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in Milan, Italy
Serbia, Ukraine and Poland all recorded fatalities as the mercury sank as low as minus 32.5C (minus 26.5F).
Parts of the Black Sea froze near the Romanian coastline, while in Bulgaria a number of towns recorded their lowest temperatures since records began a century ago.
The Polish government said its victims were mostly homeless people under the influence of alcohol who were seeking shelter in cold buildings.
In Ukraine 63 people have died from the freezing conditions over the past week, and nearly 950 have received hospital treatment for hypothermia and frostbite. The death toll in Serbia stands at five.
Dr Milorad Dramacanin, who took part in helicopter evacuations in central Serbia, said: "The situation is dramatic, the snow is up to five metres high in some areas, you can only see rooftops."