Heavy snow and ice brings travel chaos across UK
Baku, December 18 (AZERTAC). Christmas travellers are facing further transport chaos as heavy snow falls across many parts of the UK.
Hundreds of drivers spent much of the night stuck on the M6 in Greater Manchester, amid disruption on the roads, railways and airports.
Gatwick Airport shut its runway until 1500 GMT as snow blew in, and British Airways cancelled all flights out of Heathrow from 1000 GMT to 1700 GMT.
A host of weekend sporting fixtures were cancelled as temperatures plunged.
BA advised all passengers on BA flights during times affected not to travel to Heathrow on Saturday, and warned of severe disruption at all London airports.
There was also disruption at Exeter, London City, Aberdeen, Bristol and Cardiff airports.
Problems were reported on the M61, M58 and M57 overnight, with police advising people not to travel unless absolutely necessary.
Commuter Stephen Derbyshire, who was stranded on the M6 for five hours, told BBC Radio 5 live: "It is absolute mayhem."
The M6 and M61 reopened at around 0700 GMT after junctions 22-27 and 6-8 respectively had been closed.
In Wales, staff at several hospitals have been struggling to get into work, with two health boards appealing for medical staff to help out over the weekend.
Cwm Taf and Cardiff and Vale NHS trusts said they needed help running the Royal Glamorgan, Prince Charles, University Hospital of Wales and Llandough hospitals.
Several roads across the country remain closed and bus services between Carmarthen and Cardiff and other areas have also been disrupted.
Whilst in Northern Ireland freezing conditions continue to make travel difficult following some of the heaviest snowfall for 25 years - with more forecast.
Belfast International Airport has reopened, although delays and cancellations are expected, and Belfast City Airport has reopened for the "forseeable future".
The Northern Ireland Roads Service said slush from Friday had re-frozen overnight and Christmas shoppers should think carefully before setting out by car.
Jon Caudwell, from the Highways Agency, said they were doing their best to keep major roads in England clear but needed help from motorists.
He told 5 live: "We`ve obviously got more and more snow coming, so we`re really going to have to work very, very hard.
"We are asking the public to really seriously consider whether they do need to come out in these conditions and if they do come out in these conditions they really must take extra care."
Lincolnshire County Council said it had already used about 60% of its grit stocks despite starting the winter with 31,600 tonnes - 8,000 more than usual.
BA spokesman Phillip Allport said the airline was the biggest at Heathrow and even a short closure of an hour or two at short notice would be chaotic for passengers.
"Thousands of people would be inconvenienced because BA runs so many flights. A smaller airline can take a chance on the weather not behaving as forecast - BA can`t," he said.
Passenger Jade Price, whose BA flight to the US capital Washington DC was amongst those cancelled, said Heathrow`s Terminal 5 was "absolute chaos".
The mother-of-two, from Uxbridge in Middlesex, told the BBC: "We sat on the tarmac with our two small children for four hours with no food before being told that we would not fly because the queue for de-icing was too long.
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