Blocks of ice up to 40 centimetres (16 inches) thick have closed long stretches of three German rivers to shipping, authorities said Monday as the cold snap claimed another fatality.
After around 100 kilometres (60 miles) of the River Elbe were declared unnavigable on Friday, the ice was so thick along parts of the Mosel and the Main that vessels could no longer use these either, the authorities said.
Police meanwhile said on Monday that a 79-year-old man had been found dead on Sunday in his flat in Bad Homburg near Frankfurt. They believe he had frozen to death. His daughter said there was no heating in the building.
Last week the cold snap gripping large parts of Europe claimed three lives in Germany: a 58-year-old homeless woman, a 77-year-old woman suffering from dementia and a 66-year-old man who had gone missing from his retirement home.
Temperatures were forecast to reach between minus 10 and minus 20 Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit to minus four) in parts of southern Germany overnight on Monday.
