An Italian prosecutor has asked a judge to put 17 former members of the Nazi SS on trial for their alleged role in the worst Second World War-era civilian massacre in Italy – the 1944 slaughter of more than 700 people near Bologna, court officials said today.

Snowstorms sweeping across Europe stranded hundreds of motorists in northern France and brought chaos to other countries today.

An Italian court today indicted three alleged former members of the Nazi SS on charges of having carried out a 1944 massacre of 560 people in the Italian village of Sant’Anna di Stazzema.