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Drivers warned after accidents due to icy conditions | |
(about 1 hour later) | |
Motorists are being warned to drive with extreme care after freezing conditions in England led to a series of accidents. | |
No-one is thought to have been hurt but a 25-mile (40km) long section of the A1 northbound in North Yorkshire was shut on Monday morning. | |
A police spokesman said there were a number of collisions involving jack-knifed lorries and other vehicles. | |
Schools have also been affected with about 55 closed in Essex. | |
A total of 39 were closed in East Sussex with a further 19 closed in Kent and Medway. | |
A handful of schools were also closed in the East Midlands, Warwickshire, Surrey and Yorkshire. | |
Severe weather warnings are in place across England with ice posing a major hazard on roads and pavements. | |
Some rail services continued to suffer following the weekend's big freeze. | |
Southeastern hoped to operate a normal timetable, but said cancellations and delays were "very likely". | |
In Portsmouth a broken-down train and electrical supply problems caused delays, disruption and cancellations to South West Trains services. | |
Passengers had to switch to buses to get to Portsmouth, while rail services on the busy routes to and from London Waterloo were hit. | |
In a statement, the operator said: "These low temperatures are set to continue for several days. Please take care when travelling and allow additional time for your journeys." | |
The weather also lead to flights being cancelled or delayed. | |
Heathrow Airport axed half of all flights on Sunday night but the airport, which had 2.4in (6cm) of snow, hoped to resume normal service on Monday. | |
A spokeswoman said: "We are expecting everything to operate as our normal schedule. There may be some cancellations and reshuffling as a result of yesterday's disruption." | |
With only 50% of the 1,300 scheduled flights going ahead on Sunday many travellers faced a night sleeping on terminal floors. | |
But Heathrow insisted its "snow plan" had worked "far better" than in previous years. | |
A spokesman said: "We took the decision with airlines and air traffic control yesterday to reduce the flight schedule in advance. | |
"By cancelling flights in advance, airlines have been able to re-book some people on to flights that are departing, and passengers have had better quality information about whether they can fly or not." | |
The airport faced heavy criticism following severe weather in December 2010 when it almost ground to a halt. | |
Forecasters warned of continuing icy conditions as temperatures hovered around freezing in many areas on Monday morning, although Church Fenton in Yorkshire recorded -8.6C (16.5F) with visibility less than 100m. | |
At the weekend scores of travellers were caught up in the conditions as airports closed runways and rail services were delayed. | |
Drivers were trapped in their cars on the M40 and M25 and elsewhere roads were gridlocked as a result of accidents and jack-knifed lorries. | |
Tube lines also faced disruption and football matches and horse races were called off. | |
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