Hundreds stranded on Italian motorway

Around 500 people have spent a second night blocked on a southern Italian motorway because of snow and ice, Italian police said yesterday.

Traffic on the A3 highway linking the town of Salerno to Reggio Calabria in the toe of Italy ground to a halt on Wednesday morning in heavy snow, leaving hundreds of cars and lorries stranded.

Efforts to clear some 160 kilometres of road on Thursday failed, forcing many people to spend a second night in their freezing vehicles.

Other drivers abandoned their cars in search of shelter and 11 people were rushed to hospital suffering from exposure. Local authorities said they had called in the army to help distribute food and water to stranded drivers.

"I've travelled all round Europe but I've never seen anything like this," French lorry driver Filippo Martelli was quoted as saying by Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Transport Minister Pietro Lunardi has ordered his ministry inspectors to look into the chaos.

Bad weather had been forecast for days, but despite the warnings, vehicles were allowed onto the mountainous motorway without snow chains and the snow ploughs failed to clear routes.