In Romania, one of the worst affected areas, authorities said main highways in the south and east were made impassable due to the heavy snow. More than 40 trains were not running due to snow on the track.

Senior emergency situations official Raed Arafat said authorities evacuated 622 people who needed dialysis and 126 pregnant women.

Serbia's state television reported that 17 people, including six children, were injured in a pileup caused by the wintry weather on the outskirts of the southern city of Nis.

Heavy snow and strong winds disrupted traffic in southern Serbia and snow piled up to two-meters (6.6 feet) high, closing several roads. Local official Dragan Dimitrijevic said emergency crews were "helpless against the wind."

"New piles form almost immediately after we clear up," he said.

Bulgarian authorities said some 650 villages across the country were without electricity due to high winds and heavy snow, while the national road service said that snow plows were unable to operate due to the conditions.

Temperatures are forecast to drop to minus 20 C (minus 4 F) at the weekend and Bulgarian authorities issued a severe weather warning for 20 out of the country's 28 regions, telling people to stay indoors.

In Croatia, the temperatures dipped below freezing even along the country's Adriatic coast where high winds halted some ferry traffic to the islands and over the bridges along the coastline.

In Montenegro, bad weather caused traffic delays and authorities urged people to stay indoors. Villages were virtually cut off in the worst-hit northern part of the country.

Elsewhere, temperatures in Germany plunged as low as minus 25 degrees Celsius (minus 13 Fahrenheit) overnight, after storm "Axel" sucked in icy air from the Arctic.

In northern Europe, which is accustomed to subzero temperatures, it was bitterly cold but sunny, plummeting to minus 23 C (minus 9.4 F) Friday morning in Helsinki, Finland, the same temperature recorded in Latvia.

Strong gales off the coast of western Norway caused the cancellation of a ferry and on a major rail section west of Copenhagen, Denmark, there were delays due to the icy weather.

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Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia; Frank Jordans, in Berlin; Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria; and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.

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