North prepares for more snow chaos

Motorists are being told not to venture out

Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England are being warned of several days of freezing temperatures, following heavy snowfall and gales.

Thousands of homes spent Tuesday night without power after overhead cables were damaged by high winds.

Forecasters have warned of further snow showers and freezing temperatures until the weekend.

Motorists are being advised against non-essential travel and advised to carry food and drink, warm clothing and a shovel in case they become stranded.

Thousands of homes in Northern Ireland have no electricity

The Scottish-English border has effectively been cut off, with all main roads, including the A1 and M74, blocked in the south of Scotland, and the East and West Coast railway lines suspended.

Weather forecasters are not predicting snowfall on the scale of the past couple of days, but have said that strong winds will continue to cause problems with drifting.

Stranded

More than 300 people spent several hours on Tuesday night stuck in snow on the M74 motorway between Abington and Crawford, in South Lanarkshire, as rescuers struggled to get to them.

Trans-Pennine routes were badly affected, with the Snake Pass and Woodhead Pass forced to close and the M62 described as tricky in places.

Several towns in the Borders were left without electricity or transport access after power lines were brought down and roads blocked by snowdrifts as high as 12ft in places.

Scottish Power said more than 1,000 engineers were working to reconnect homes in the Borders and Fife which were cut off by the bad weather, but access was still a problem in several areas.

"We will be continuing to work round the clock until everyone's supply is back on," said a spokeswoman.

Schools closed

Thousands of homes in the north-east of England were also without power overnight, while supplies were also affected in Northern Ireland, where about 15,000 houses were still waiting to be reconnected.

With 70mph gales, air, sea and rail services were seriously disrupted and the weather also caused traffic chaos and forced the closure of hundreds of schools.

Edinburgh and Dublin airports were also closed for much of the day, the latter forcing singer Kylie Minogue to cancel a tour date in the Irish capital.

In Wishaw, Lanarkshire, 16 people voluntarily spent a night in the cells after they were stranded near the town's police office, while 40 motorists in Ross-shire spent the night in a pub after being forced to abandon their vehicles.