-37C temperatures traps thousands of tourists in Finland | World News

Thousands of tourists have been left stranded in northern Finland after flights at Kittila Airport were cancelled due to severe cold.

Temperatures at the airport dropped to -37C on Sunday morning, after several days of similarly Arctic weather, making de-icing of aircraft and other operations difficult.

Stranded Brits have a chance of getting home on Monday afternoon when flights to Manchester and London are scheduled – however Met Office forecasts show temperatures will still be around -28C at that time.

Kittila is located in Finnish Lapland in the country’s sparsely populated north.

Despite being used to frosty winter temperatures, Finns have been affected by this year’s cold, which is more severe than in other years and has affected wide regions of northern, central and eastern Europe.

Heavy snowfall, high winds and icy roads have made travel treacherous across the continent.

In Germany, train passengers were experiencing long delays and cancellations on Sunday after heavy snowfall led to rail operator Deutsche Bahn shutting down all services in the north of the country.

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Authorities announced that due to icy temperatures, all schools would remain closed and switch to online classes on Monday in North Rhine-Westphalia, the country’s most populous western state.

In the Baltic countries of Estonia and Lithuania, drivers were asked to postpone all non-essential travel because of expected blizzards, while neighbouring Latvia issued a snow alert for the west of the country.