Snow Falls Cripple Transport

With as much as 10 centimetres (4") of snow falling across the eastern part of Northern Ireland this morning - especially in east Antrim, Belfast and Co Down - disruption to road transport and flights has been extensive.

Belfast City Airport halted all services for a time, even though its efforts to clear the runway were successful. The east Belfast facility was forced to cancel departures and divert arrivals to Belfast International until it could achieve the necessary 'adhesion' levels on the runway surface to permit safe operations said a spokesman this morning.

Even at Belfast International Airport all BmiBaby flights to and from the East Midlands and Birmingham were cancelled because of the treacherous weather conditions in those areas and the Easyjet flight to Luton was also scrapped.

Numerous schools have also closed as roads are identified as impassable and public transport struggles to get around.

Public transport company Translink has warned of delays to services.

And the police have advised motorists to use extra care with many roads unusable, such as the Shane's Hill Road between Ballymena and Larne.

In fact, many areas of high ground have been worst affected and snowploughs are being used in these areas.

Even on the outskirts of north Belfast, the Upper Hightown Road was this morning effectively useless, as traffic ground to a halt in the heavy snowfalls.

The M2 motorway coming into Belfast was being described by police as being "bumper to bumper" from the A57's Templepatrick entrance.

The Hilltown to Kilkeel Road is also impassable and traffic coming from Lisburn into Belfast is reportedly at a standstill.

Roads Service said 125 gritters carried out a salting run before midnight in preparation for the snow and some carried out a second run. After midnight another shift of workers continued the work.

The Met Office has a severe weather warning in force for Thursday morning for heavy snow in places.

See: Heavy Snow Fall Brings Further Disruption

(BMcC/JM)