In Germany, the frozen bodies of a woman and her three young daughters were found in a field near the eastern city of Leipzig. Early indications suggested the woman may have committed suicide.

A 39-year-old man also froze to death in a field in northwest Bosnia, where temperatures have plunged as low as -30 C (-22 F).

In the Netherlands, which has seen its heaviest snow in more than 20 years, temperatures dropped overnight to -20.7 C, a record low for the month of March.

Flights out of Amsterdam's Schipol airport suffered severe disruption, with dozens of cancellations and delays of up to several hours.

Hundreds of stranded passengers were likely to spend Friday night at the airport, which is planning to roll out makeshift beds for them.

The white blanket delighted the tourists on Amsterdam's winding canals, but caused mayhem on the country's icy roads, killing two people and wounding dozens more.

In France, the capital's Eiffel Tower was slowly reopening to visitors as workers cleared the huge iron structure of dangerous ice patches that had forced its closure the day before.

Flights in and out of Paris were also returning to normal, a day after the snow caused some 300 cancellations. Slight delays were still affecting some international flights out of Orly airport south of the capital.

Meanwhile, prison authorities in Melun, southeast of Paris, ordered the evacuation of all 86 inmates after a major failure in the heating system.

Officials said the temperature inside the cells had not fallen below 18 C, but was expected to drop further before the boiler could be repaired.

A heating failure had sparked a riot in another prison near Paris last weekend, as five inmates set fire to their mattresses in protest at the cold.

The weather paralysed traffic near the northern city of Lille, and sporting events including horse races were called off in several parts of the country.

The freezing conditions kept thousands of schoolchildren from their classes in both France and England.

In the Rouen area northwest of Paris, school bus services were cancelled until at least Tuesday because of the icy road conditions, while more than 100 schools remained closed in Kent in southeast England, which this week bore the brunt of two weeks of wintry conditions.

In southern Europe, Lisbon was forced to set up emergency shelters for the homeless, caught unaware by the cold, and Italy sounded the alarm, warning the country could face a major gas shortage if the cold conditions persist.

"The situation is critical, as we are starting to tap into our strategic reserves," the energy ministry said in a statement.

An emergency plan has been put in place, which would switch users over to alternative energy sources, if the cold weather continues, it said.

The Italian farmers' confederation estimates the damage done so far to crops by the unseasonable weather at 650 million euros (800 million dollars).

Sporting events were cancelled in Austria as heavy snowfalls continued across the country, although the weather services stressed that the condition were not unusual for the season.

The whole of Hungary was also blanketed in thick snow, with serious traffic problems reported in the capital.

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