Heavy snowfall and low temperatures in Japan
Bad weather has left at least 5 people dead in Japan. Several hundred cars have been stranded on roads, and trains have been stopped and flights cancelled. Officials urged people to take care in view of blizzards, icy roads and rough waters.
The severe weather has severely affected road traffic. Thousands of commuters have been forced to spend the night in train carriages or at stations in Kyoto and Shiga prefectures after some flights were halted.
At the same time, hundreds of flights were cancelled. In Nagasaki prefecture, about 100 cars were stranded on a 9-kilometre stretch of road.
A further 20 cars were stranded in Fukui prefecture. The mountain regions and the coastal area along the Sea of Japan experienced the heaviest snowfall. More than 90 centimetres of snow fell in the last 24 hours.
