London - Snow swept across Britain on Friday, forcing airports to cancel dozens of flights and more than 2 000 schools to close.
London's Heathrow Airport, one of the busiest in the world, cancelled around 60 flights while the airports in the Welsh capital Cardiff, Southampton in southeast England and Bristol in the southwest were closed completely.
“We've got 24 vehicles clearing the runways,” a Heathrow spokeswoman told AFP.
A Cardiff spokesman said the airport was due to re-open shortly, while Southampton said it would be shut until at least 1500 GMT.
British Airways cancelled more than 60 of its flights but said the figure was likely to rise during the day.
Over 2 000 schools were closed across Britain, while the bad weather also caused gridlock on the roads.
Britain's weather agency, the Met Office, issued a rare “red warning” for parts of south Wales, where some areas were expecting up to 30 centimetres of snow.
Sapa