With heavy snow and ice having affected most parts of the country, drivers have been warned of the "potentially fatal" conditions on the roads as many prepare to travel to see family over the Christmas holidays.

With most of the UK's airports having been affected by the freezing conditions and rail services also subject to delays, the situation is no better on the nation's roads. The AA has said it is angry that not enough grit has gone onto major routes and says that it expects many more calls than usual for this time of year. A spokesman said: "If we get anywhere close to 30,000, it has been at three times what we would normally expect. Today is going to be the day that breaks all records."

The organisation's president, Edmund King, has said that during the severe conditions, lorries should keep to the inside lane of motorways so that if two trucks were to break down, they do not close two-thirds of the motorway.

It is believed that 10 people lost their lives due to the bad weather over the weekend with one man falling through ice on a fishing lake in Essex and two women killed in a road crash on Merseyside.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister said that the government is doing all it can to cope with the "exceptionally severe weather conditions" and added that the country does have sufficient salt available.

Source: www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/dec/20/uk-snow-chaos-continues