Heavy snow in southern France has stranded hundreds of cars and made road travel impossible for trucks and buses. The airport at Nîmes has been closed. In some parts of the Rhone valley, up to 40 centimetres of snow has fallen. Meteorologists say this is extremely rare for March.

Further east, the Greek capital Athens has been hit by a dust storm. A layer of red sand carried all the way across the Mediterranean Sea from the Sahara now lies over the city. Ferry services from the city have been halted and the three-kilometre-long bridge connecting western Greece with the Peloponnesian peninsula has been closed due to high winds.