A bulldozer shovels snow off Red Square as snow falls in Moscow on February 4, 2018. (AFP PHOTO)
MOSCOW, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- Moscow experienced a record strong snowfall last week, which caused delays and cancellations of air flights and the death of at least one victim, officials said.
"Moscow had the strongest snowfall in the last 100 years," the Moscow mayor's office said in a statement on Monday.
It said that in the last two days the snow layer reached 45 cm, which exceeds the average rate for the month.
The main roads of the city have been cleared by Monday, and public transport works without interruption, the statement said.
The sharp drop in temperature and a continuous snowfall make the snow clearing complicated, Deputy Mayor Pyotr Biryukov said. However, he added, all engineering systems were working stably.
According to the Yandex Timetable, a public transport timetable online service in Russia, 91 flights were delayed in Moscow airports on Monday morning and nine flights canceled due to the snowfall.
On Saturday, one was killed and another two were injured due to heavy snow downing trees, Moscow's Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in his VK social network account.
In the next three days, the snow layer is expected to grow eight cm thicker amid strong winds and blizzards. At night, the temperature is expected to drop to minus 15-17 degrees Celsius, Biryukov said. He encouraged residents to use public transport in the coming days.
The mayor's office declared that schoolchildren were allowed to skip classes.
