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Frankfurt airport, Europe's third-busiest hub, has partially re-opened after heavy snow caused severe travel disruption in north-west Europe.

One of the three runways was operating again for take-offs only, the airport operator said.

Hundreds of flights via Frankfurt and Paris have been cancelled.

The Eurostar high-speed train service between London, Paris and Brussels until at least Wednesday.

In south-eastern England, hundreds of people were stranded in their cars by the snow as emergency services struggled with road chaos.

There were huge traffic jams in Belgium and northern France too.

Frankfurt airport had received about 12cm (5in) of snow, said Stefan Schulte, a spokesman for the airport operator, Fraport AG.

Schoolchildren stranded

In Paris, some 300 flights from Charles de Gaulle airport - a quarter of the day's total - were cancelled, along with a similar proportion from Paris Orly.

Brussels airport was also offering a reduced service on a single runway.

The freezing weather in Belgium and northern France also hit rail services, including the cross-Channel Eurostar, which cancelled trains for the rest of the day.

Parts of southern England were coping with a second day of snow and freezing conditions.

Just in the county of Sussex, police dealt with more than 300 traffic collisions in 24 hours.

Among those stranded by snowbound roads was a group of 120 German schoolchildren who had to be put up in Hastings town hall in East Sussex for the night when families due to look after them were unable to reach them.

However, officials said they were steadily clearing roads and conditions were improving during the day on Tuesday.

The Channel Islands have experienced some of their worst conditions in decades, with airports still closed following heavy snow.