Big freeze kills 101 in Ukraine

Thirty-eight more people have died as freezing weather grips Ukraine, authorities say.

The death toll over the past week now stands at 101.

The Emergency Situations Ministry said more than 1,200 other people have been treated in hospital for hypothermia and frostbite as temperatures in some parts of the country sank to -32C (-26F).

Authorities have closed schools and colleges and set up nearly 3,000 heating and food shelters across the country. Health officials instructed hospitals not to discharge homeless patients, even after treatment is finished, to save them from the cold.

Experts said the high death toll reflects the country’s inability to deal with the homeless.

There have been dozens of death elsewhere in Eastern Europe with thousands of villagers trapped by heavy snow and blizzards in Serbia.

The stranded people live in homes in remote mountainous areas.

Many of the dead have been homeless people unable to find shelter.

Parts of the Black Sea froze near the Romanian coastline and there was a rare snowfall on Croatian islands in the Adriatic Sea. In Bulgaria, 16 towns recorded their lowest temperatures since records started 100 years ago.