THE Met Office has raised fears for the elderly and ill by issuing a serious weather alert for England as Europe shivers in freezing conditions.
The forecaster issued its first country-wide Level 3 Cold Weather Alert of the winter - the second most serious.
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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
The alerts are tied in to the UK Government's Cold Weather Plan and are relayed to organisations such as Age UK, which help the elderly through winter.
With temperatures this week as low as minus 6.2C in Pershore, Worcestershire, minus 6.1C in South Farnborough, Hampshire, and minus 5.7C in Hurn, Dorset, the Level 3 Alert is expected to remain in force until the weekend when the country is braced for snow.
In Eastern Europe, the death toll from the severe cold spell has risen to 83. Temperatures have dropped as low as minus 32.5 C (minus 26.5 F) in some regions, causing power outages, traffic chaos and the closure of schools and nurseries.
Popular travel destinations are even worse off, with bleak temperatures such as minus 14C in Berlin, minus 17C in Prague, minus 8C in Paris, minus 13C in Stockholm and minus 20C in Warsaw.
The weather is so cold that some areas of the Black Sea have frozen near the Romanian coastline.
Heavy snow and cold weather, reaching minus 10 degrees Celsius paralysed life in Istanbul and closed several roads in eastern Turkey. In Moscow temperatures fell to minus 21 Celsius (minus 6 Fanrenheit).
In the UK, the Met Office warned that the weather "could increase the health risks to vulnerable patients and disrupt the delivery of services."
The only higher alert is Level 4, which sees normally healthy people at risk from the cold.
Michelle Mitchell, charity director at Age UK, explained how dangerous the conditions can be for the elderly.
