Thousands of homes were without electricity and dozens of snowbound vehicles were abandoned overnight after blizzards swept northern areas of Britain. Forecasters said similar conditions were expected on Saturday, causing further chaos on land and sea.
Attempts to rescue three injured crew members from a cargo ship off the Isles of Scilly were expected to resume. Earlier efforts were abandoned because of storm conditions. After winds of up to 70 miles an hour battered Britain on Friday, temperatures fell to minus 11 Celsius in parts of Scotland overnight. The mercury was expected to hover around minus 3 degrees in northern England on Saturday.
Snow and ice were forecast for the Highlands, Northern Ireland, western areas and the north of England, but the Midlands and eastern England were expected to be fine, if frosty.
Winds in south-west England were expected to fall, improving prospects for the rescue of the captain of the Liberian-registered cargo ship Horncliff, who suffered serious spinal injuries during a storm off southern Ireland. About 60 containers, believed to contain bananas and melons, fell overboard as the Horncliff was battered by heavy seas.
Attempts to salvage another ship, the ferry Riverdance aground off Blackpool since Thursday, were postponed because of the bad weather. There were fears that a Spanish trawler that ran aground off St Kilda in the Outer Hebrides on Friday could pose an environmental hazard if the rats believed to be on board reached shore, a spokeswoman for the National Trust for Scotland told BBC radio.
The islands are a World Heritage Site and the most important seabird breeding station in north-west Europe. Home to puffins, it is free of ground-based predators.
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