Home>>World
Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, January 09, 2002

Snow Kills Three; Cold Kills Four Others in Russia

Three children sledding from the roof of a warehouse were killed Tuesday after being buried in up to 20 inches of snow that blanketed Russia's Far East.


PRINT IT FORUM CHINESE SEND TO FRIEND


Three children sledding from the roof of a warehouse were killed Tuesday after being buried in up to 20 inches of snow that blanketed Russia's Far East.

Four people also died of exposure overnight in Moscow, where temperatures dropped to minus 16. That raises the death toll from exposure this season to 297, city officials said.

Up to 20 inches of snow fell in some villages outside the Pacific port of Vladivostok, which received up to 16 inches, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. The record-setting storms, fueled by a cyclone, also cut off power, paralyzed traffic and forced the deployment of troops to rescue stranded drivers.

The children were killed in the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, on the Far Eastern Sakhalin Island, the Interfax news agency reported.

In Vladivostok, the military sent out armored personnel carriers to help tow trolley buses, trucks and other vehicles stuck on slick roads. At least four people were injured in weather-related accidents, police said.

Power in the city and surrounding areas was cut off for hours Tuesday after snow stuck to power lines, causing them to snap in the strong winds.

"It is a unique event, when in the space of 12 hours we have double the (monthly) average (of snow)," said Boris Kubai, head of the Primorye regional weather center. "It is the first such case in 50 years."

The Georgian region of South Ossetia entered its second week without electricity because of damaged power lines, acting North Ossetia premier Kazbek Karginov told ITAR-Tass.








    Advanced

Snow Stops Street Flow in Beijing 

Snow Hits the Middle East



 


Copyright by People's Daily Online, all rights reserved