LONDON -- Below-zero Siberian winds sent shivers across Europe Sunday, prompting Romans to throw snowballs instead of coins into famed Trevi Fountain, causing a 60-mile traffic jam in Germany, and sending firemen to rescue swans trapped by ice in France.
At least six people perished from the cold in France. Three were vagrants sleeping outside, two died in unheated hovels and the sixth was found dead after he left a senior citizens' center in eastern France wearing only a raincoat.
In Austria, three children whose toboggan slid onto a snowy road Sunday were seriously hurt. Nine people were hurt in a 27-car pileup in Switzerland Saturday.
Weathermen said temperatures as low as 5 degrees Fahrenheit were made worse by winds blowing down from Siberia. When U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz arrived in Geneva to meet with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, the wind-chill factor brought the temperature down to 22 below zero Fahrenheit.
Rome got its first real snowfall in 14 years Sunday, with at least 4 inches on the ground by noon. Both airports were closed and trains were late.
At the Trevi Fountain, one of Rome's biggest tourist attractions, both Romans and tourists alike were pitching snowballs into the fountain instead of the coins that are supposed to ensure that they one day return to the Eternal City.
In the village of Trepalle di Livigno, temperatures -- without wind chill -- reached 36 degrees below zero Farenheit, the coldest ever recorded in an inhabited spot in Italy.
In France, the famed Cote d'Azur was blanketed in white, though models in Nice went ahead with a scheduled parade of summer Japanese fashions on snow-covered streets.
Water was cut in several towns because of frozen pipes and firemen in Carcassonne were called to public gardens to aid swans imprisoned by ice in fountains.
In Lyon, a tramp died as he slept under a blanket on a city street bench, despite offers from Salvation Army volunteers to take him to a shelter.
In Yugoslavia, the fourth day of heavy snowfalls blanketed Belgrade with about 20 inches of snow. In southeastern Yugoslavia, there were reports of drifts up to 40 inches.
Snow fell in and around London, disrupting public transport and sparking a spate of traffic accidents, although motorists were warned to stay home.
The coldest spot in West Germany Sunday was Kempten in the Bavarian Alps, where the mercury sank to 17 degrees below zero Farenheit. On the autobahn, traffic jams of up to 60 miles were reported, but the ski slopes of the Alps and central highlands were packed with winter vacationers.
