LONDON - Travellers faced chaos Wednesday as a band of snow hit eastern parts of Britain and headed westwards after a night of heavy frost. Overnight temperatures plunged as low as minus 16C (3F) in the northern Scottish town of Aviemore as roads and railways struggled to cope with the cold snap.

Traffic heading to the southwest was paralysed by an accident in Wiltshire county, western England, caused by icy conditions. On mainline railways, a combination of severe weather and signalling problems led to delays for many travellers. Residents in the east of the country woke up to a covering of snow, which was particularly heavy in Essex, east of London. Snow hit the capital just after 8:30 am (0830 GMT) and was continuing to fall at 10:00 am.

On Tuesday, thousands of rail passengers were delayed across Britain when a combination of freezing temperatures and signalling failures brought severe disruption to networks. In the southeast, train services were hit when points froze and a major signalling failure halted services to and from London's busy Paddington station for several hours.