Christmas travel chaos enters its sixth day

In Scotland temperatures plunged as low as-16C (3F)

Thousands of Christmas holiday plans continue to be disrupted as the winter travel chaos enters its sixth day.

Icy roads have led to hazardous driving conditions and in Cornwall one woman died and over 40 people were injured when a coach crashed on a country road.

Eastern Scotland was braced for heavy snow and in the central highlands temperatures plunged to -16C (3F).

Meanwhile flights from many airports including Luton, Gatwick, Heathrow, Glasgow and Edinburgh are disrupted.

Between 5cm (2in) and 10cm (4in) of snow is predicted to fall in eastern Scotland, although this is expected to die off by lunchtime and early afternoon.

Temperatures plummeted across the UK on Tuesday night and the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Abandoned vehicles

Middle Wallop in Hampshire - one of the worst-hit counties by this week's snowstorms - was one of England's coldest spots overnight at around -10C (14F). In parts of London, the temperature fell to -6C (21F).

Glasgow fell as low as -9C (16F), Cardiff -2C (28F) and the same temperature in Manchester.

But Dalwhinnie in the central highlands looked to be one of the coldest spots this year, at -16C (3F) - just short of the -8C (0F) recorded at Aviemore in February.

Meanwhile the roads were still suffering the knock-on effects of snow and ice from the weekend and Monday.

Snow and ice in Scotland

Up to 2,000 motorists in Basingstoke in Hampshire had either abandoned their vehicles or slept in their cars after getting stuck in gridlocked traffic on Monday evening.

Buckinghamshire County Council urged owners to collect abandoned vehicles "as soon as possible". Thames Valley Police said abandoned cars were causing an obstruction in the High Wycombe area.

All vehicles left on motorways overnight had been removed and owners must pay to get them back, the force said.

At the UK's airports, Easyjet flights are badly affected, with flights from both Luton and Gatwick severely disrupted.

The airline said it had looked into the possibility of operating flights on Christmas Day to help catch up, but it was not "feasible" - despite having had cabin crew on stand-by.

Body recovered

It said alternative arrangements had been made to assist as many customers as possible but there were no guarantees it would be able to get everyone home in time for Christmas.

Other airlines were having similar problems, it added. All passengers are advised to contact their airline.

Eurostar said all trains setting off on Tuesday had arrived as expected, with no reported problems, and passenger backlogs from the weekend have been cleared.

Eurotunnel, meanwhile, said it was managing to clear the backlog of cars and lorries waiting to use its Channel Tunnel car service.

Day trip bookings for Wednesday and Thursday have been cancelled, however, and anyone without a reservation has been advised not to show up.

Police searching for two men believed to have gone missing while trying to rescue a dog from a lake near Ringstead, Northamptonshire, have recovered a body. Searches were set to resume on Wednesday.

Problems persist on public transport in many parts of the UK.

Transport Minister Sadiq Khan said he would be "asking questions" about the difficulties in Basingstoke and Reading.

FORECAST FROM BBC WEATHER

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