Deaths Up In Europe Cold Spell

French trains were diverted to pick up stranded skiers and German rail stations converted to homeless shelters Sunday as the death toll from Europe’s longest cold spell in a decade passed 230.

Seven more deaths were reported across the region and weather forecasters said a new blast of frigid air would hit Monday.

In Britain, police recovered six bodies from snow and ice, including that of a 47-year-old woman last seen chasing after her dog in Dorset, in southwest England, on Saturday.

Trains in France were diverted to get skiers home at the end of Christmas and New Year vacations. France’s second week of freezing weather has downed phone lines and left nearly 30 people dead.

In southeastern France where more snow fell Sunday, some 12,000 homes were without electricity and 5,000 without phones, France Info radio reported.

In Italy, a 51-year-old man had an arm and a leg severed when he slipped and fell under a train in Lombardy, northern Italy, the Italian news agency ANSA reported Sunday.

In Germany, the cold wave’s death toll rose to about 40 over the weekend including an elderly man who froze to death in an unheated, ramshackle house.