Heavy snow and freezing temperatures continued to wreck havoc across Europe as thousands of air travellers were stranded at airports and motorists were stuck on highways in Germany and several other countries.

At Germany’s largest airport in Frankfurt, several hundred passengers were forced to stay overnight, many of them for the second consecutive day, after more than 270 out of 1,340 scheduled flights were cancelled.

A number of flights were also delayed as snow-clearing teams struggled round-the-clock to get the runways and aircraft free of ice.

Many of the stranded passengers spent the night at the airport, where around 1,000 camping beds have been made available by the airport authorities.

Airport officials said a number flights were delayed or cancelled also because of cancellations or airport closures elsewhere.

They said they did not expect the situation to improve on Sunday as heavy snowfall yesterday night could only aggravate the travel chaos.

Around 600 out of 1,450 planned flights at the Frankfurt airport were cancelled on Friday.

The German airlines Lufthansa on Saturday introduced a special flight plan involving sharp reductions in its services within this country and in Europe to cope with the air travel chaos.

Only the flights originating and landing in Frankfurt will be affected by the cuts and all long-distance flights will continue to operate as usual, airline officials said in Frankfurt.

The airline is also encouraging its travellers within Germany to take the train wherever possible and offered to provide free train tickets to those in possession of Lufthansa air tickets.

According to some estimates, more than 2,500 passengers have been stranded at the Frankfurt airport since heavy snow and freezing conditions brought by low-pressure system “Petra” began causing severe flight disruptions and cancellations on Thursday.

Over 3,000 air travellers were stranded at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport following the cancellation and delay of hundreds of flights.

There too, hundreds of stranded passengers spent the night at the airport and availed of the camping beds provided by the airport operator.