Winter’s icy grip is taking a hold on Europe with heavy rains, strong winds and snow.

UK

Britain braced for Storm Egon ahead of the weekend, with evacuations from its eastern coastal towns over fears of a storm surge.

However, the UK was largely spared from the predicted snowmaggedon.

France

Across the Channel, violent storms left 330,000 homes in France without power overnight on Friday.

More than 100 passengers on a Thalys from Brussels to Paris were stuck for ten hours after their train lost power.

Southern Europe

While Northern Europe is used to subzero temperatures, the polar conditions surprised residents of Dubrovnik in Croatia, with the Old Town blanketed in snow for the first time in eight years.

While locals reveled in the arctic scenes, the cold means misery for thousands of refugees in Greece and Serbia.

The picture postcard scenes of Venice stand in stark contrast to recent scenes of migrants grappling with temperatures below zero in makeshift camps. The UN’s refugee agency is calling on government’s to do more, after it was reported five people had already died from the harsh conditions.

We are deeply worried at the situation of refugees and migrants faced with harsh winter conditions across #Europe https://t.co/wYEeUB91bw pic.twitter.com/XCJg7eDTIH— UNHCRNews (@RefugeesMedia) January 13, 2017