Heaviest snowfalls since 1985 blanket Italy

ROME - Record low Siberian temperatures put Italy on alert on Friday as a rare snowfall disrupted transport and services throughout the country.

Cars in Rome unprovided with snow chains or snow tyres were banned from the roads covered by feet of snow, while schools and public offices stayed closed in the capital and other cities to prevent casualties and allow teams of snowplows to clean roads.

Women stand in snow on a road in Rome, Feb 3, 2012. [Photo/Xinhua]

"The situation inside Rome is under control, but the real problem is the capital being isolated from the outside as highways are blocked," Mayor Gianni Alemanno told Rai state television. He said such an extraordinary snowfall had not occurred since 1985.

The Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill remained closed to prevent accidents, Director of the Colosseum Rossella Rea was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency.

A number of trains were cancelled or delayed, stranding thousands of passengers at stations for hours. In northern Milan, the railway station was temporarily left open in the night to protect tens of clochards from below-zero temperatures, after one of them was found frozen to death.

Bologna and Ancona international airports were temporarily closed, while many flights were grounded or delayed throughout the country.

According to local media reports, many places in the northern hinterland of Rome remained completely isolated and were left without electricity as power lines were cut.

"We are in absolute emergency, with some districts of our town totally submerged by meters of snow," Mayor of the town of Meldola in Emilia Romagna Gian Luca Zattini told Rai.

"Some nearby places remained completely isolated and without electric current, so that emergency teams had to bring medicines to elderly and ill people blocked for hours at their homes," he said.

Temperatures were around 10 degrees below zero in many cities, reaching 30 degrees below zero on Mount Rosa.

In the worst hit regions, such as central Emilia Romagna and Marche, local authorities were running short of salt used to melt the ice and snow.

According to local media, five people were killed in Italy following the wave of bad weather, including a man who was found dead in his car covered in snow in southern Isernia, and an elderly woman who froze to death at night in northern Savona.

According to forecasts, snowfalls will affect the capital also on Saturday.

Because of the bad weather, a number of Italian Serie A and B soccer matches were also cancelled or postponed to later this month.