Thousands of towns and villages in Moldova, Ukraine and Bulgaria left without electricity as cold snap bites

Heavy snowfall and blizzards across eastern European countries this week have resulted in a number of deaths, and left thousands of towns and villages without electricity, after the first major cold snap of the season.

In Moldova, four people were reported dead over the weekend, with two bodies being recovered from cars that had been buried in snowdrifts. In Ukraine, severe snowstorms left 10 people dead across the Odesa, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv and Kyiv regions. Fifteen hundred towns and villages were left without power, with one snowstorm in Odesa leaving 2,500 people in need of rescue and about 850 vehicles requiring towing. Southern Ukraine was the worst affected, as cars and buses slid off frozen roads, with local authorities battling strong winds to rescue vehicles. Bulgaria was also badly affected, declaring a state of emergency as winter storms left more than 1,000 villages without electricity.