The Meteo France service reported that one of its Paris weather stations had recorded 11cm (4.5in) of snow. The French capital has not seen a larger one-day snowfall since 1987.

Motorways in the Paris region were described as impassable as snow that had already hit other areas of France spread to the capital.

Elsewhere in Europe, a boy drowned in southern Spain when his father's car was swept into a flooded river.

In Poland, a further three people died because of the extreme cold.

The authorities there said 66 people had lost their lives since the severe wintry weather began in late November.