As a result of icy downpour and cold weather in Germany, several road accidents occurred, 3 people died, Munich airport temporarily suspended flights.
Police said one student was killed in a school bus crash in the Erzgebirge mountains in the eastern state of Saxony. Two adults, including the bus driver, were seriously injured. 10 schoolchildren were taken to hospital.
The bus crashed into the side of a winter road maintenance vehicle in Sehmatal county near the Czech border, German news agency dpa reported.
In Munich, all flights were cancelled or delayed between 6am and noon (5-11am GMT). The airport warned that many flights scheduled for later in the day could also be affected by the severe weather. Germany’s second largest airport announced the temporary closure on Monday evening due to weather forecasts for Tuesday. The airport said on its website:
The operating areas will be de-iced in the first half of the day. The plan is to allow air traffic to resume from midday. However, it can be assumed that the majority of flights will also have to be cancelled during the rest of the day for safety reasons.
Two more people have died after a passenger car collided with a tractor trailer on the A8 motorway in Upper Bavaria. Police said the car skidded under the rear of the lorry, which had stopped across the motorway on Monday night into Tuesday due to frozen rain on the surface of the motorway.
The A99 motorway near Munich was closed in both directions after 13 vehicles were involved in a massive accident, the dpa news agency reported. There was no information on possible casualties.
Railway operator Deutsche Bahn said traffic in the Munich area would be hampered for several days. It said on its website on Tuesday:
At present, access to Munich’s main station is severely restricted. Only a few long-distance trains are therefore running to and from Munich.
Rail services to the Austrian cities of Salzburg and Innsbruck, as well as Zurich in Switzerland, remain suspended. Deutsche Bahn said train cancellations and delays could be also possible in other parts of southern Germany.
