Istanbul airport shuts as snow blankets southeast Europe

Europe's busiest airport shut down in Istanbul while schools and vaccination centres closed in Athens as a rare snowstorm blanketed swathes of the eastern Mediterranean region, causing blackouts and traffic havoc.

The closure of Istanbul Airport affected flights stretching from the Middle East and Africa to Europe and Asia.

Travel officials told AFP it marked the gleaming glass-and-steel structure's first shutdown since it replaced Istanbul's old Ataturk Airport as the new hub for Turkish Airlines in 2019.

The winter's first snow created a jovial atmosphere across the squares of Istanbul's ancient mosques, where children built snowmen and tourists posed for selfies.

But it dealt a major headache for the 16 million residents of Turkey's largest city, which ground to an effective halt.

The main highway leading to the capital Ankara briefly closed to traffic over the weekend because of fog and heavy snow.

The Istanbul governor's office warned drivers they would not be able to enter the city from Thrace — a region stretching across the European part of Turkey to its western border with Bulgaria and Greece.

Traffic officials also closed roads across large parts of central and southeastern Turkey, a mountainous region first hit by a snowstorm last week.

Istanbul Airport serviced more than 37 million passengers last year, becoming one of the world's most important air hubs.

But critics of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had long questioned his decision to place the airport on a remote patch along the Black Sea coast that is often covered with fog in the winter.

"Due to adverse conditions, all flights have been temporarily stopped for air safety," the airport said in a statement.

Officials said flights would be suspended until at least 6:00 pm (1500 GMT), with delays expected throughout the night.

'Everything is frozen'

Most of Turkey's main institutions stayed opened on Monday.

But in Turkey's Aegean Sea neighbour Greece, where overnight temperatures plummeted to -14 degrees Celsius (6.8 degrees Fahrenheit), the storm suspended a session of parliament and forced schools and vaccination centres to close in Athens.

Thousands of motorists were trapped in their cars around Athens — many of them venting their anger on TV stations — despite attempts by police to seal off motorway entry points in the northern part of the capital.

"My wife has had nothing to eat since morning. We had a small bottle of water between us," one driver who identified himself only as Christos told private Star TV.