Icy conditions cause travel chaos

Thousands of Christmas holiday plans continue to be disrupted as ice and snow cause travel chaos.

Two women died and more than 40 people were injured when a coach crashed on a country road in Cornwall.

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

Flights from many airports including Luton, Gatwick, Heathrow, Glasgow and Edinburgh are disrupted. And a plane overshot Prestwick Airport's runway.

Eurostar service

Strathclyde Police said no-one on board the Ryanair flight was hurt. The airport has now reopened.

Eurostar has asked people not to go to St Pancras station until after 1300 GMT, as all its services are full.

It is running a restricted service but has advised passengers with tickets for travel since last Saturday that it would try to allocate them a seat on the next available train.

The company said it wanted to ease congestion at the station which has been caused by people trying to get a train after several days of cancellations.

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

And it has emerged that thousands of online shoppers may not receive their goods by Christmas after snow crippled some deliveries.

Royal Mail said it is doing "everything possible" to ensure post arrives on time.

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

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

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) and is expected to drop to -10C (14F) on Thursday.

'Icy roads'

It is -2C (28F) in Cardiff 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 -18C (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, prompting the Met Office to issue a number of warnings of "widespread icy roads" for most of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Scottish Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson has said conditions on Scotland's roads are the worst for 20 years.

Sections of the M27 have been closed following a number of accidents involving multiple vehicles, and some lorries drivers have reportedly pulled over to the hard shoulder of the motorway due to the icy conditions.

Hampshire Police said there had been at least six accidents on the motorway in the Southampton area and warned motorists to take extreme care.

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.

AA president Edmund King accused some councils of not acting quickly enough to grit roads and claimed some "key roads" had "not been gritted at all".

However the Local Government Association (LGA) said the claims were "unverified, unsubstantiated and unjustified".

Meanwhile, people have been urged not to travel to the Port of Dover unless they have a ticket.

And ticketholders should check availability with their operator.

Problems persist on public transport in many parts of the UK. Major problems include:

Roads

• Some of the major routes in Scotland are affected, including the A1, M90

• Problems on the M27 - Hampshire police warning of long delays

• Serious problems in parts of Devon, Dorset and Cornwall

Trains

• Problems in south-east England - replacement bus services and delays in Kent and Surrey

Airports

• The vast majority of Easyjet's flights are operating normally but passengers are still advised to check the website

• All passengers are advised to contact their airline

• Three flights from London Luton Airport have been added to help ease the backlog

• Passengers using Glasgow Airport have been warned to expect delays and cancellations, with similar problems at Edinburgh and Aberdeen

• Warnings of disruption at Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester

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