1 February 2012 Last updated at 13:57 ET

In pictures: Europe grapples with freeze

Ice covers cliffs as the waters Black Sea are frozen near the shore in Constanta, Romania.

An exceptionally cold snap and record snowfalls are causing disruption across Europe. Here the Black Sea is seen frozen in Constanta, Romania.

Icicles hang from a piece of wood at the waterside of river Elbe near Woerlitz, eastern Germany

Many places are having to cope with temperatures reaching to nearly -30C, sometimes mostly following an unusually warm spell for this time of year.

A snowplough clears snow off a road in the northern Italian town of Bologna.

The snow has carpeted large parts of Europe - stretching to Italy and further south.

A man carries snow taken from his yard in his horse-driven cart in Posta village near Bucharest, Romania.

This man in Romania is using a horse-drawn trailer to clear the snow.

Even the Greek capital, Athens, is struggling to cope as the country remains in the midst of an acute economic and financial crisis.

A man is seen behind a frosty window on a tram on a cold winter day in Sofia.

Bulgarians are more accustomed to the cold - this man is seen behind the frosted window pane of a tram.

Homeless people given hot soup at the Alter Ego Society soup kitchen in Wesola, south of Warsaw, Poland.

Ukraine and Poland have seen the highest number of deaths especially among the homeless, some of whom are being sheltered in makeshift centres like this one in Warsaw.

In Romania's capital, Bucharest, some ventured out to find firewood.

Bosnian people carry food supplies in a remote village near the town of Sokolac, 70km east of the capital, Sarajevo.

In Bosnia-Hercegovina, food supplies were sent to a remote village that has been cut off by the snow east of the capital, Sarajevo.

Ukrainian man fishes through an ice hole on the Dnipro river outside Cherkasy, central Ukraine.

This Ukrainian man, though, is one of many fishing through an ice hole on the Dnipro river.

A boy enjoys a ride on his sledge at the Feldberg mountain in Schmitten, north-west of Frankfurt, Germany.

But in Germany, this boy enjoys a ride on his sledge.

A gondolier ferries passengers across the Grand Canal in Venice.

And there is no putting off tourists in Venice as they take a gondola ride across the Grand Canal.

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1 February 2012 Last updated at 13:57 ET

In pictures: Europe grapples with freeze

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