PARTS OF GERMANY HIT WITH DEADLY SNOWFALL
Severe weather led to the fatality of a nine-year-old boy yesterday near Munich. It also continues to cause traffic jams and avalanches.
Many roads are closed because of the snow masses and fallen trees, which pose a continual danger.
On Thursday, a nine-year-old boy was killed by a falling tree in Aying near Munich. The tree collapsed under the heavy snow load, police reported.
Only after 40 minutes did witnesses discover the boy buried under it and alert the rescue workers. They tried in vain to resuscitate the child for about an hour in the afternoon.
According to the police, the tree, about 10 meters tall, stood on a private property and fell onto an access road.
In the fight against the masses of snow in Bavaria, rescue forces hope for better weather on Friday. According to forecasts from the German Weather Service (DWD), the snowfall is expected to decrease temporarily. Yet DWD advised drivers in snowy parts of Germany to take caution when driving on icy roads.
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It is still unclear when train traffic in southern and eastern Bavaria will resume everywhere. As many trains can no longer get through the snow-covered tracks, lots of connections have been interrupted.
Throughout Bavaria, the fire brigade, the technical relief organizations and other helpers are on constant duty in order to free up roofs that are in danger of collapsing from snow loads.
Caution advised when entering the forests or mountains
Entering snow-covered forests in southern Germany can currently be an acute danger to life, the Association of German Forest Owners Associations told the "Bild" newspaper.
According to experts, however, the danger of avalanches has decreased in large parts of the Bavarian Alps.
On Friday, the Bavarian Avalanche Warning Service in Munich classified the danger as great only for the Berchtesgaden Alps, which is the second highest of five danger levels.
For the rest of the Alpine region, the danger is considerable, warning level 3. In the past few days, the experts had assumed that there was a great danger of avalanches throughout the region, which corresponds to level 4.
However, they continued to warn: "Due to the possible long ranges of avalanches, activities in the mountains at present require special caution and a carefully considered choice of route.”
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