Finland avalanche leaves two dead as extreme cold grips Nordic countries

Rescue services in Sweden working to free people trapped in about 1,000 vehicles after heavy snowfall and record low temperatures

A woman and her son caught in an avalanche in Finnish Lapland have been found dead as extreme cold continues to hit the Nordic countries.

Police said the boy’s body was found dead in Pyhäkuru in northern Finland on Thursday morning, near the place where his mother was found on Tuesday after an avalanche struck during a ski hike.

“The sequence of events after the emergency call is hardly fully clear, but very poor weather conditions combined with an avalanche seem to have caused this sad and unusual accident,” said Kirsi Huhtamäki, the crime commissioner leading the investigation.

According to the Finnish broadcaster, YLE, a 12-year-old boy was killed in the avalanche and the woman and child were from Korsnäs in western Finland.

The woman was reportedly experienced in nature and called the emergency centre on Tuesday at 2pm because of the bad weather, prompting a rescue mission. When, two hours later, they could not find her or her son, the search is understood to have been transferred to police, who are still investigating the cause of death.

In Sweden, where record low temperatures have been recorded this week, rescue services and the army were working on Thursday morning to free passengers in aabout 1,000 cars trapped overnight in a snowstorm in the south of the country.

The road – the E22 between Hörby and Kristianstad – is not expected to reopen until Friday morning. “The road is long, about 3 [Scandinavian] miles [30km],” said rescue services in Kristianstad. “Cars and trucks need to be removed and the road must be cleared of snow before it can be opened to traffic.”

Some vehicles had to be shovelled out by hand by volunteers from the home guard. Some waited for as long as 20 hours. Evacuated motorists were taken to evacuation centres to rest, warm up and eat after hours stuck in their cars.

By midday, authorities said that all motorists who wanted to leave their vehicles had been evacuated, but that some, largely truck drivers, had decided to remain. The road is not expected to be reopened until 8am on Friday.

Temperatures in northern Sweden dropped below -40C (-40F) for the second consecutive day on Wednesday after Kvikkjokk-Årrenjarka in Swedish Lapland recorded -43.6C on Tuesday night – the lowest January temperature recorded in the country for a quarter of a century.

Several weather warnings remain in place in Sweden for the rest of the week, according to forecasts by the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI).

The extreme cold snap has disrupted transport and closed schools across the region, while strong winds and heavy rain in western Europe have caused flooding and at least one death.

Police across most of Denmark urged motorists to avoid unnecessary trips as wind and snow struck the northern and western parts of the country.

In Norway, meteorologists said some parts of the country could experience the coldest temperatures in a decade.

The Norwegian Automobile Federation (NAF) said electric cars could lose as much as 36% of their range in temperatures of 0C to -10C.

The wave of cold air from Siberia and the Arctic region has also swept down over western Russia, with temperatures in Moscow and other areas plummeting to -30C, well below the average temperature for early January.

Officials in Moscow, St Petersburg and other areas have issued orange weather warnings, cautioning residents against possible health risks.

Mild but wet and windy conditions prevailed farther south, where a storm wreaked havoc in parts of western Europe.

In Britain, a driver died on Tuesday after a tree fell on his car in western England.

The storm, named Henk by the official weather services of Britain, Ireland and the Netherlands, caused power cuts, transport troubles, property damage and disruption across the UK.

Heavy rain since Sunday in the northern Pas-de-Calais and Nord regions of France have forced the evacuation of about 200 people and knocked out power to 10,000 households, according to local authorities.

Roads in the town of Blendecques turned into waterways, and authorities told residents in the areas under flood alert on Wednesday to restrict their movements until water levels subside.

Hundreds of emergency workers from around France mobilised to rescue people from inundated homes and clear roads, and reinforcements of personnel and equipment came from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and the Netherlands. Powerful pumps were brought in to divert up to 60,000 cubic metres of water from the worst-hit towns toward the Channel and lower water levels around the Aa River delta, the regional prefecture said in a statement.

The national weather service maintained flood and wind warnings on Thursday for several regions across northern France and its borders with Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany, with more rains forecast along with winds up to 60mph (100k/mh).

Parts of Germany were also grappling with flooding, which could be aggravated by more rain falling in the worst-affected north-western state of Lower Saxony.