London - A blanket of snow covered much of western Europe on Monday with heavy falls causing major flight disruptions in Britain and France and bringing misery to the roads.

London lay under 10cm of snow, the most recorded in the British capital in 18 years.

Flurries also brought chaos to parts of France and Spain, while three people died in Italy amid adverse weather conditions there. The snow showers reached as far south as Morocco.

Snow caused a Cyprus Airways plane with 104 passengers on board to come off the taxiway at Heathrow, the world's biggest international airport to the west of London.

"The plane had safely landed and was making its way to the stand and the front wheel went on to the grass area," a spokesperson for airport operator BAA said. Passengers were bussed to the terminal and there were no injuries.

Both runways have since been closed at Heathrow while all flights were cancelled up to 17:00 GMT. In addition British Airways called off all its short-haul flights for the rest of the day.

A number of other British airports were closed or had severe delays and flight cancellations.

In Wales two climbers were killed on Mount Snowdon and hundreds of schools closed around the country.

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