A child passes a building frozen by ice and snow in Romania.
China News Service, February 3rd According to foreign media reports, a strong cold wave swept through most of Europe on the 2nd. Many countries have ushered in the coldest winter this year. The number of people freezing to death due to difficulty in resisting the severe cold has been rising steadily. The death toll has reached 163 so far.
Some towns in many eastern European countries are unable to communicate with the outside world due to too thick snow, and will also face the risk of natural gas supply interruptions. Among them, the temperature in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, has dropped to minus 27 degrees, and in some areas the temperature has been as low as minus 33 degrees. The Ministry of Emergency Situations of Ukraine released a report stating that so far, the number of people in Ukraine who have frozen to death is as high as 63, of whom 8 died in hospitals, 41 died on the streets, and 14 died in their own homes. The cause of death may be hypothermia.
The Ukrainian authorities have set up more than 2,000 temporary rescue stations. The Department of Health said it had instructed hospitals not to discharge homeless people even if their conditions improved, to ensure they did not die of cold sleeping on the streets.
In addition, the death toll in Poland reached 29, and the temperature dropped to minus 32 degrees in some areas. In addition, the number of deaths has also increased in Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia and other countries.
The staff of the Belarusian and Ukrainian Red Cross societies said that they have prepared 100,000 euros in relief funds for this severe cold. "Those homeless people have not made any preparations. They do not know what the weather will be like in the future, their living conditions and the dangers they will face." The Red Cross said they have assisted the local government in providing hot meals, cold clothing and blankets to the people.
Currently, the cold wave has reached most countries in Western and Southern Europe. In Italy, hundreds of passengers were stranded on trains as heavy snow disrupted traffic. An infant and an elderly man also died from hypothermia.
Of the 107 regions in France, 41 have declared a state of emergency. The capital Paris has set up nearly 600 relief stations to help homeless people survive the cold winter.
