UK snow: Fresh blizzards grip Scotland with hundreds stranded in cars

UK snow: Fresh blizzards grip Scotland with hundreds stranded in cars

Fresh blizzards closed Scottish airports and disrupted rail travel as the usa was called in to help ambulance crews reach patients trapped in remote areas.Hundreds of drivers were stuck on the independent road between Glasgow and Edinburgh as the snowy conditions blanketed the central belt of the country.

Others opted to bed down in their offices rather than present the long commute home.Breakdowns and drifting snow blocked major roads. Lothian and Borders police forces said there had been "numerous" problems that brought traffic to a standstill."We are stressful to remove vehicles from the route and get people that have been stuck," said a police spokesman. "We are sounding to put gritters and snowploughs out to make the carriageway [on the primary road between Edinburgh and Glasgow]."One driver, Mustafa Elshani, said he had been isolated on the M8 for 8 hours during a 17-mile journey that usually takes 30 minutes. "I left work early because of the snow chaos," he told Sky News."Some families are stuck in their cars, some car batteries are working out. People are all desperate. There's absolutely no one approach to help. We're just being left here, stranded."Military 4x4 vehicles were helping medics from the Scottish Ambulance Service reach patients. Pauline Howie, chief administrator of the Scottish Ambulance Service, said: "Ambulance crews are battling through horrendous conditions across the central belt, and the additional 4x4 vehicles from the military provides valuable operational aid to our teams."The Met Office said that there was between 10cm and 40cm of lying snow in the central lowlands, around 32cm in Edinburgh and 11cm in Glasgow. Both Glasgow and Edinburgh airports were closed for office of the day. Dundee, Inverness, Kirkwall and Campbeltown airports were also closed.Motorists were advised to take only if their travel was absolutely necessary, and roads throughout the area were closed. Tayside was the only area with no major routes closed, but drivers were warned to exert "extreme care" behind the wheel.In the Highlands a bus with 21 passengers on board slid off the route in the wintry conditions and collided with rocks. No-one was injured and a free bus was sent so the passengers could discharge their journey.The Forth Road Bridge was closed southbound from about 11am due to a jack-knifed lorry but reopened at 3.30pm. Motorists were warned that a heavy reserve of traffic had built up and it would be some time before the road cleared.While 95% of schools in Scotland reopened, many schools sent pupils home early due to the weather. Temperatures are expected to absorb as low as minus 13C in central Scotland and parts of the north.Severe weather warnings for icy roads were in office throughout the country, with further warnings of c in Orkney and Shetland and the Highlands & Eilean Siar.The Scottish government said more than 160 vehicles and about 400 staff were running "around the time" to prevent the route network moving.The Scottish transport minister, Stewart Stevenson, said: "Scotland has been in the clutches of the worst snow and ice conditions in the other winter since the 1960s. Every cause has been made to prevent disruption to a minimum."Snow was predicted for now but was significantly heavier than expected, and timing during rush hour made conditions worse. "In the preceding 10 days Transport Scotland have spread approximately 50,000 tonnes of salt throughout the country.