Spain's Real Madrid football team held up on icy runway as storm buffers country

Spanish side Real Madrid were trapped on a plane for more than two hours on Friday after ice on the runway of Barajas airport prevented their plane from taking off as a snowstorm buffeted the country.

The La Liga side were waiting to take off from Madrid to travel for their match on Saturday against Osasuna in Pamplona in northwestern Spain.

"They told us the outlook is bleak. The take-off runways are closed and that the ice-removing machines are for landing," a Real spokesman said on Friday.

"We estimate that we have been here more than two hours. The sense of outrage is already irrepressible."