Heavy snowfall and freezing rain cause flight cancellations across Germany

Heavy snowfalls and freezing rain across Germany on Wednesday led to the cancellation of hundreds of flights and trains, crashes on icy roads, and school closures.

At Frankfurt airport, Germany's biggest, more than 500 flights were canceled, while in Munich over 250 arrivals and departures were canceled. In western Germany, Saarbruecken airport closed for the day, as Duesseldorf and Cologne/Bonn airports were also affected by delays and cancelations.

National train operator Deutsche Bahn cancelled several long-distance connections and announced that the maximum speed of its fast ICE train would be limited to 200 km per hour (124 miles per hour) due to the extreme weather.

The freezing rain across western and southern Germany also led to countless crashes on icy roads in the early morning hours of Wednesday. As a precaution, many schools and kindergartens in the country closed for the day, and some companies offered their employees the option of working from home.

According to another report, freezing rain in central and southern Germany grounded hundreds of flights and restricted train traffic on Wednesday as the weather service warned of slippery roads and heavy snowfall.

A man looks at the flight schedule, showing several flights canceled (annulliert) at Munich Airport on Wednesday. AP

At Frankfurt airport, 570 of the 1,047 scheduled arrivals and departures were cancelled, while 254 flights were scratched at Munich airport and a smaller airport in the southern city of Saarbruecken ceased operations completely.

The weather service warned of an extreme risk of black ice and heavy snowfall in the affect regions through Thursday.

German rail operator Deutsche Bahn warned of delays and cancellations in view of the winter weather, and said it was limiting the top speed for its high-speed ICE trains to 200 kilometres per hour as a precautionary measure.

Agencies