Icy rain shuts down Moscow's airport, power lines

MOSCOW: Icy rain has shut down Moscow's largest airport, coated roads with ice and left more than 200,000 people and 14 hospitals without electricity in winter, officials said.

The rain struck the city Saturday night. Workers are scrambling to restore the power supply after heavy ice snapped power lines, Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said.

Moscow's major airport Domodedovo shut down Sunday morning after the power supply was cut off. No planes are allowed to land or take off. By afternoon, it was still unclear when flights would resume.

Moscow motorists woke up Sunday to find their cars covered with an inch of ice. Power lines across the region, loaded down with ice, snapped if touched by a tree branch, causing disruption to public transport and suburban trains.

Unlike the rest of Europe, Moscow had no airport delays or major road accidents last week due to winter weather.