France and Spain suffer in bad weather

Freezing weather brought misery to parts of the continent today with snow closing Paris’ main airport, while in Spain a boy drowned in a flash food.

Flights in and out of Charles de Gaulle were suspended this afternoon. At Orly, the city’s smaller airport, flights were delayed by up to two hours.

Snow quickly turned into a slushy mess in Paris’ streets, halting traffic.

The Eiffel Tower was shut to tourists around midday with staff unable to put salt on the tower’s floors because of concerns it could damage the iron structure.

In Spain rescuers found the body of a nine-year-old boy who drowned in a flash flood, as torrential rains lashed parts of central and southern Spain.

The boy had been travelling with a brother and their father yesterday when their all-terrain vehicle was overwhelmed by water from the Alcudia River near the south-central city of Ciudad Real.

Elsewhere in Spain, around 100 homes in Cordoba were evacuated out of fear the Guadalquivir River would burst its banks. Another 150 families had to leave their homes in Lora del Rio in neighbouring Seville province.