A man walks through snow covered banks of the Danube river in Zemun near Belgrade on February 12, 2012. Cold weather claimed seven more lives on Sunday in the Balkans -- two in Albania, one in Serbia and Bosnia respectively, while three more victims of an avalanche that buried several houses in a southern Kosovo village were found.
London (CNN) -- Heavy snow left several Italian villages paralyzed and without power as winter weather and cold temperatures spread across Europe, the mayor of one village said.
Many of the 32 villages in the Aniene Valley, near Rome, lost electricity on Friday when an electric pylon fell because of the snow, said Piero Moscardini, mayor of Vallinfreda.
The valley, home to about 50,000 people, has received some 100 cm (39 inches) of snow, Moscardini said.
"It's the worst snow since 1956," he said. "The situation is tragic. We need the Army to save us."
Ambulances cannot traverse the roads, he said, and some villagers cannot reach their stables to feed livestock.
Winter whacks Europe
Meanwhile, deaths continued to increase from the cold. In Romania, four people died on Saturday and another six on Sunday, authorities said. A total of 34 people have died since the cold snap began in late January.
Nineteen national roads and one highway remained closed on Sunday. More than 30 cities and villages are isolated, authorities said, and power outages were reported in 200 cities and villages. More than 3,000 employees belonging to the Interior Ministry were involved in rescue operations, as hundreds sought refuge in temporary shelters and hundreds more were hospitalized because of hypothermia.
In Poland, TVN Poland said a total of 53 people have died, eight of them in the past 24 hours. The victims are mainly homeless people, according to the report.
Heathrow Airport, one of the world's busiest international airports, canceled about half of its flights Sunday, its owner said Sunday -- about 260 more flights than it expected to cancel as of the night before.
Between two and four inches of snow fell on London overnight, as the British capital became the latest European city to be hit by winter weather wending its way west.
Drivers in both London and Rome will need to worry about ice as temperatures rise slightly, then fall again to below freezing, CNN meteorologist Tom Sater said Sunday.
Eastern Europe will have a much rougher ride, with temperatures in Moscow plunging far below freezing, and snow sweeping into the continent from the southeast.
But Heathrow's runways were clear as of Sunday afternoon, owner BAA said.
It was not immediately clear why more flights were being called off, as Heathrow spokeswoman Alexandra Blomley said the airport's snow plan "has worked far better than in previous years."
Heathrow and other British airports have been snarled by snow about once a year for each of the past several years.
The airport's chief operating officer urged travelers to check before coming to the airport so they would not be left stranded there.
Normand Boivin said Heathrow "deeply regret any disruption caused to passengers by the cold weather," but said: "Reducing the flight schedule means we can fly as many people as possible and return the airport to normal as quickly as possible."
The airport did not say how many passengers were affected, but did say it expected to operate a normal flight schedule Monday.
Rome was blanketed in a rare snowfall Saturday.
Landmarks such as Rome's Colosseum were dusted with snow for the first time since 1985. The rare precipitation caused traffic jams and left some people stranded.
Barb Mayer, who lives about 20 miles northeast of Rome, said she woke Saturday to a snowfall "unlike anything I've seen since I've had my house in Italy."
"Our house is out in the country and nobody clears the roads here," said Mayer, an iReporter who teaches English to business clients in Rome. "Even in Rome, they don't have the equipment for snow removal since it snows so infrequently."
"It usually takes my daughter an hour to drive home (to Palombara-Sabina) from Rome, but last night it took her four hours because of the traffic and the poor road conditions," she said.
By Sunday, traffic was clearing, a taxi driver said, and temperatures were rising.
However, Rome's Mayor Gianni Alemanno was being criticized for the city's handling of the weather.
Schools and public offices will be closed on Monday, the city said.
But Sarajevo, Bosnia, canceled school for a week as the Balkan city was hit by the biggest snowfall since 1999. Snowdrifts that were 110 centimeters (43 inches) high snarled the center of the city, with even more snow in the hills around it.
The news was not all bad, said Amina Sofic, a 20-year-old medical student.
"People in Sarajevo like to play in the snow, to ski or board because we have lots of hills. And now that there is no traffic, it's pretty fun to go on sleds (or) go walking," said Sofic, a CNN iReporter.
Ukraine appears to be the worst affected so far, with Poland, Romania, Serbia and Belarus also suffering much more severe winter conditions than usual.
A total of 122 people froze to death in Ukraine since the cold spell started more than a week ago, the state-run news agency Ukrinform reported Saturday, citing government ministries. More than 1,500 people have been hospitalized, it said.
The first reports of heavy snow came from Romania on January 26. Now, although temperatures are becoming more moderate, the snowfall will be very heavy, meteorologists say.
Other cold-related deaths have been reported in Serbia elsewhere in the past week.
CNN's Bharati Naik in London, Hada Messia in Rome and journalists Livia Borghese in Rome and Liliana Ciobanu in Romania contributed to this report.
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A picture taken on February 11, 2012 shows the frozen Damse Vaart in Damme. For the 13th consecutive day, temperatures in Belgium were below zero degrees Celsius. This is the longest cold wave for Belgium since 1941.
Mist rises from the partially frozen Great Ouse river on February 11, 2012 in Huntingdon, England. The Met Office recorded the coldest temperature so far this winter with -16C registered in Holbeach, Lincolnshire.
People walk on the frozen Aussenalster river during the 'Alstervergnuegen' on February 11, 2012 in Hamburg, Germany. The very popular annual city festival 'Alstervergnuegen' takes place around the Alster lake in Hamburg.
People walk on the frozen lake Zwischenahner Meer in Bad Zwischenahn, near Oldenburg, northern Germany, where blocks of ice have been cut out.
The castle and the old bridge are seen over the frozen river Neckar in Heidelberg, southwestern Germany, on February 12, 2012. Temperatures remain cold in Germany as the death toll from Europe's big freeze rose past 550.
Lighthouse and lampposts are covered with heavy ice in central Adriatic Croatian port of Senj, some 200 kilometres from Zagreb, as the sun sets on February 8, 2012. There are more than 100 villages still trapped by snow in remote, mountain parts in Croatia.
Bobsleigh riders walk at a small hill in the Olympic park in Munich, southern Germany, on February 7, 2012.
A man walks past concrete steles of the Monument for the Murdered Jews of Europe after fresh snowfall on February 9, 2012 in Berlin.
A woman sporting a fur hat walks in the center of Ukrainian capital of Kiev on February 9, 2012. Helicopters ferried food and medicine to iced-in villagers Wednesday as the cold snap tightened its frigid grip on the continent.
A man walks with his dogs next to Queen's Mere pond in the snow on Wimbledon common on February 10, 2012 in London, England. The Met Office cold weather alert remains at Level 3 as southern parts of England continue to suffer from cold weather and freezing conditions, with further snowfall overnight.
People skate on a frozen pond in Prague on February 6, 2012. Meteorologists this morning measured minus 39.4 degrees Celsius, the coldest temperature of this winter, in Kvilda village, in the South Bohemian Sumava mountains.
A picture taken on February 6, 2012 shows horses in a field covered with snow in the Corsican village of Cognocoli-Monticchi. In France, 39 of the country's 101 regions were on alert for deep cold or snow, down from more than half the regions at the weekend.
A monument is covered with snow in Kiev on February, 6, 2012 after heavy snowfalls in Ukraine. Ukraine on Monday blamed alcohol abuse as the main cause of deaths caused by a spell of abnormally cold weather that has claimed at least 135 lives over the last 10 days.
A man walks under an umbrella during a snowfall in downtown Skopje on February 6, 2012.
A man takes pictures of a Bartholdi fountain covered by ice on February 6, 2012 on Terraux square in Lyon, eastern France. In France, 39 of the country's 101 regions were on alert for deep cold or snow, down from more than half the regions at the weekend.
A dog plays in the icy Elbe River on Monday, February 6, in Hamburg, Germany. The Arctic cold snap in Europe has claimed nearly 300 lives, brought air travel chaos to London, and dumped snow as far south as Rome and even North Africa.
People walk through a park in Burgos as snow hits northern Spain on Sunday.
A man snowboards Sunday in Caen, France. Seventy-five French departments were under medium range (orange) alert for snow and ice Monday.
A frozen fountain stands in front of Buckingham Palace in London on Sunday. Heavy snow fell overnight across southeast England, causing many roads to become blocked.
iReporter Fabrizio Buzzi sent this shot taken in central Rome on Saturday. "People go out to enjoy the experience as snow is a rare sight in Rome," says Buzzi.
iReporter John Pe shot this photo of the streets of Rome blanketed by heavy snowfall. He said local residents have "gotten their snow gear and have taken to the slopes!"
Snow paralyzes traffic in Bucharest, Romania, on Monday.
Ice accumulates in the Trocadero fountain in Paris, as France faces low temperatures.
A man walks past an ice-covered car Sunday on the frozen waterside promenade at Lake Geneva in Versoix, Switzerland.
Two girls sled down the hill Sunday in London's Alexandra Park.
People stand in snow Saturday in front of the Colosseum in Rome.
A man puts snowchains on his car Saturday in Rome. Heavy snowfall caused the Italian capital to grind to a halt.
A boy and his mother skate on the partly frozen Elbe River on Thursday as the skyline of Dresden, Germany, is silhouetted in the background.
A man pets a dog next to frozen sea waters in Constanta, Romania, on Wednesday. Temperatures plunged to -34 degrees Celsius (-29 degrees Fahrenheit) in central Romania.
People walk on an ice-covered dam next to frozen Black Sea waters near Bucharest on Wednesday.
A man is seen through an icy window Wednesday on a tram in Sofia, Bulgaria.
In the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, temperatures dropped to -22 degrees Celsius (-8 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday. The cold temperatures were blamed for at least 31 deaths in the country.
A skier takes advantage of the unusual snowfall in Istanbul, Turkey, on Tuesday. The snow paralyzed daily life there.
An ice fisherman waits for a catch on a frozen lake near Sofia on January 30.
Animal lovers helped remove the snow that covered the "second chance" dog shelter outside Glina, Romania on January 28.
Bulgarian women walk through heavy snow January 28 in Rakovski.
A man clears snow off a vehicle in Sofia on January 27.
Freshly plowed snow frames a road in Bucharest on January 27.
A dog takes shelter from a blizzard in Catelu, Romania, on January 26.
Pedal-boats and canoes sit in frozen water in Stockholm, Sweden, on January 26.
iReporter Cosmin Stan sent in this photo from Bucharest on January 26. "The problem was not the quantity of the snow, but the strong winds," he told CNN.
Skiers make their way through the snow near Oberhof, Germany, on January 25.
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