Due to a snowstorm, thousands of people were stuck in their cars on Thursday morning in Denmark and Sweden. At one point, the Ritzau news agency reported a traffic jam of 30 kilometres on the E45 highway near Aarhus and Randers.
Many vehicles stood still for more than 20 hours. The traffic jam arose after an accident with a truck on Wednesday. The Danish police called on drivers in the area to leave their cars behind due to the difficult weather conditions.
Train traffic had been halted in parts of the country since Wednesday due to the snowstorm. The trains have been running again since Thursday afternoon, albeit with delays.
More than a thousand cars and trucks were stuck in the snow on the E22 highway between Hörby and Kristianstad in Sweden on Thursday, the TT news agency reported. Initially, emergency services tried to free cars from the snow, but in the late morning, they started evacuating people from trucks and cars.
There were up to 50 centimetres of snow in several places on Thursday in Denmark. The Danish weather institute said this was the most significant snow in thirteen years. In the northern Swedish town of Kvikkjokk-Årrenjarka in Lapland, up to minus 43 degrees were measured.