Europe Gripped by Heavy Snow, Subzero Cold

A severe cold wave and heavy snow gripped Europe and the Soviet Union on Sunday, triggering fatal avalanches in Soviet Georgia, threatening to bring electricity rationing to Sweden and disrupting road and rail traffic across the continent.

Deaths were reported in France, Sweden and the Soviet Union as a direct result of the cold wave.

In Sweden, the government warned of possible electricity rationing because of freezing temperatures. Numerous power blackouts were reported in Stockholm on Saturday. In northern Sweden, a reading of 49 degrees below zero Fahrenheit was reported.

Three people died Saturday in traffic accidents caused by the cold and icy wind in Sweden.

The Swedish army helped feed people on the island of Oland, with regular transportation severed from the mainland by heavy snowstorms.

In neighboring Finland, a low of 33 below zero Fahrenheit was recorded overnight.

In Poland, temperatures dipped to minus 25 degrees in the coldest January on record, bringing the city of Warsaw to a virtual standstill. West Germany and East Germany recorded their coldest temperatures of the year.

A fire sparked by an overheated wood stove swept through an old house on the western French coast Sunday, asphyxiating four children and three adults from the same family.

In the southern Soviet republic of Georgia, Red Army troops were conducting rescue operations in some areas, where the weather was described as the worst in 50 years. The Tass news agency said troops were sent into Georgia to help reach 50 settlements and villages cut off by up to 15 feet of snow.