A cold snap spread across China on Friday, with temperatures falling below freezing across most of the country, prompting authorities to restrict traffic flow on highways in several provinces after vehicles collided on icy stretches.
President Xi Jinping called for “comprehensive” emergency measures. Xi, who was in the southern Guangxi region on Thursday and Friday, said heavy rain and snow in many parts of the country had affected power supplies, transportation and people's lives, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
The cold snap that began earlier this week is spreading from north to south across the country and is expected to cause temperatures to drop over the weekend, even as the Meteorological Center says rain and snow will ease.
In the city of Yichun in Heilongjiang, the record of minus 47.9 °C set in January 1980 could be broken early next week due to severe weather conditions.
In Henan province, snowfall and icy roads as well as heavy fog led to multiple accidents on several expressways, prompting traffic controls.
Traffic authorities in the Ningxia region said some of their highways had become unsafe and were introducing temporary traffic measures due to the snowfall. According to state media, some highways in neighboring Gansu were also closed and trains stopped.
On the outskirts of Beijing, authorities investigating an accident on a suburban rail line said a train car failed to brake as it descended and collided with another car that had stopped because track conditions had deteriorated due to snow.
Beijing and the provinces of Jiangxi and Shanxi have taken measures to protect fruit and vegetable crops from frost damage and disease, state media reported.
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