AFP/London

Passengers were forced to sleep on the floor at London’s Heathrow Airport overnight, media said yesterday, after heavy snow grounded hundreds of flights and left thousands of people stranded.

A spokesman for the airport, one of the busiest in the world, said a further 100 flights had been cancelled yesterday morning, on top of about 400 that were grounded Friday by the bad weather sweeping Britain.

The Eurostar train service also reported further delays yesterday, saying snow and ice in Britain and northern France had led to speed restrictions. It also cancelled two trains. British media showed pictures of hundreds of people sleeping on the floor at Heathrow overnight Friday.

“There are lots of bodies lying around in the airport. If feels like there’s been a natural disaster,” Jerry Meng from Los Angeles, whose flight to New York was cancelled, told the BBC.

Ian Aitchison, who was due to fly to the US for a conference, told the broadcaster he was feeling “mildly hysterical” after being stuck on a plane for more than six hours before the flight was cancelled.

Runways, stands and taxiways remained open on Saturday but 67 outbound and 33 inbound flights were scrapped, largely because the bad weather meant aircraft or crew were not available, an airport spokesman said.

“We do not expect significant snowfall today, but temperatures are forecast to remain around zero degrees or below. Passengers should check the status of their flight before travelling to the airport,” he said.

“There is a chance of further snow tomorrow.”

Heathrow invested £50mn in improving its resilience to severe weather events after the chaos sparked by heavy snow in the run-up to Christmas to 2010, where passengers spent days stranded at the airport.

London’s other major airports at Gatwick and Stansted were expecting to operate normally.

The big freeze across the UK is set to last with more snow expected next week.

With travel chaos across the country and Britain’s busiest airport being likened to a “refugee camp” amid more than 100 cancelled flights, forecasters predicted further misery in the coming days.

Following Friday’s deluge of snow, much of yesterday’s snowfall was limited to the North East of England and the east of Scotland. But today a blanket of snow is expected to fall across more of the nation, hitting London and the South East of England first before moving north.

Laura Caldwell, of MeteoGroup, said: “There will be a few snow showers but heavier snow moving into the south of England and spreading into the Midlands, north east Wales, East Anglia and central England.

“There will be a quite significant accumulation and it will be seen first in London and the South East before moving north later in the day.”

Freezing temperatures which have chilled the UK for the past week will also combine with more snow in northern England as next week begins, Caldwell added.

“It is not going to be getting warmer any time soon,” she said.

 

 

Eight-year-old Carl Attwater and his mother Jane ride a sled downhill in front of the Jill Windmill at Hassocks in south east England yesterday.