The highest red warnings are in place in Germany and Austria with up to six more feet of snow expected before the weekend amid chaos on roads and railways. At least 15 people have died amid the weather chaos including a 16-year-old German-Australian boy who was killed on a ski slope in Austria. In the Austrian town of Hohentauern there were 2,000 people trapped as three feet of snow fell overnight and covered the roads. Pictured top left: snow covers the ground in Salzburg, Austria; top right: a bicycle decked in snow in Ilmenau, central Germany; bottom left: a regional train is stuck at Berchtesgaden station in southern Germany; bottom right: a man abandons his car in Kars, Turkey.
The family reportedly called for help when they were stuck on a piste but the avalanche struck before rescue workers could reach them.
More than 1,000 miles of ski slope and 450 ski lifts have been closed because of the weather.
Another woman, aged 54, died in her car after falling asleep in the stationary traffic on Germany's A8 motorway.
In Slovakia, the mountain rescue service said a 37-year-old man was killed by an avalanche in the Mala Fatra mountains.
In the Austrian town of Hohentauern there were 2,000 people trapped as three feet of snow fell overnight and covered the roads, Bild reported.
| Out of service: A snow-covered commuter train is stuck on the track at Berchtesgaden station in southern Germany, a town where hundreds of people have been left trapped |
In Bavaria in southern Germany there were 100 car accidents last night as the weather caused icy roads and huge traffic jams.
Hundreds of residents in Berchtesgarden in Bavaria were snowed in and had to have food delivered by military vehicles as regular lorries could not manage the icy road.
Galtuer in western Austria, where a massive avalanche in 1999 killed 31 people, was reachable again on Thursday after being cut off.
Trains have also faced severe delays with locomotives and other railway units stuck fast in the snow as rescue workers try to shovel them free.
To add to the travel chaos hundreds of flights have been cancelled in Germany amid a strike by airport security staff.
Several railway lines in the Alps were closed because of the snow while schools were closed in parts of Bavaria.
The weather service issued red warnings for the south of the country and parts of eastern Germany, with temperatures as low as -9C expected.
They said: 'After the new snow of between four and 10 inches that has already fallen, more snowfall between four and eight inches is expected.
Workers de-ice parts on a classic steam locomotive near Wernigerode, eastern Germany, after it was stuck in a snow drift on the way to the summit of a nearby hill
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