Update: Cold snap death toll in Ukraine rises to 61

AP Photo: Sergei Chuzavkov. Ukraine Winter: A pedestrian walks in a street in Ukraine's capital, Kiev, Ukraine. IMAGE

12/20/12 By Mikhail Yelchev of Reuters

Some areas of the Ukraine have received 21 inches of snow and temperatures could drop to more than minus 18.

KIEV, Ukraine — A cold snap in Ukraine has claimed another 24 lives to reach a death toll of 61 people this month after temperatures dropped to minus 9 degrees, a senior Health Ministry official said Wednesday.

Forty-three people died in the streets, nine were found dead at home and nine died in hospitals, Georgy Kozynets said.

Around 1½ feet of snow has fallen, and night temperatures could to drop to more than minus 18 in northern, central and eastern Ukraine this week, weather forecasters say.

The Emergencies Ministry said it was setting up hundreds of heated tents across the country where people could get hot drinks and receive first aid.

Last February, as Ukraine went through its coldest winter in six years, more than 130 people died of cold in the country of 45 million.

(Writing by Olzhas Auyezov)

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