Icy road warnings were in force for Yorkshire and Humberside, north-west England and the East and West Midlands.

Southern England, normally immune to the worst of the weather, was gripped by conditions chillier than parts of Iceland and Greenland overnight as temperatures fell close to minus 12C (10.4F).

Milder weather was predicted tonight but forecasters warned driving conditions would be more perilous with freezing fog and black ice predicted on the roads.

Fears were also growing for the welfare of vulnerable people amid speculation gas prices were set to soar.

In Dorset, the sub-zero temperatures froze a half-mile stretch along the shoreline of Sandbanks, home to Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp.

Locals said it was the first time in decades the sea had partially frozen. Sea off the South Coast was known to have frozen in 1991.
Across the country families ignored safety warnings and took to frozen flooded fields and lakes on ice skates.

Fen skaters were pictured in the village of Earith, Cambridgeshire, where locals were hoping the cold snap would provide the opportunity for a championship skate race for the first time in 10 years.

Benson in Oxfordshire and Chesham in Buckinghamshire were both close to minus 12C and the UK's coldest areas in the early hours, with other large parts of the South also recording minus 9C (15.8F) and minus 10C (14F).

Meanwhile, in central London, the usually bustling Trafalgar Square was deserted as its famous fountains remained frozen.

Thousands of motorists were left stranded across the country as their vehicles faltered.

But the situation had eased for the AA and RAC, which dealt with an estimated 50,000 call-outs over the previous two days.

Gareth Harvey, a forecaster for MeteoGroup UK, the weather division of the Press Association, said a combination of a front of freezing fog and black ice would make conditions for drivers even more dangerous tonight.

He said: "Southern England will still be coldest tonight but temperatures are unlikely to fall lower than minus 5C (23F).

"Fog patches will be freezing and there will still be a lot of ice. This is a dangerous combination."

People across England were greeted with a light dusting of snow as they woke up this morning. Areas of Cumbria witnessed up to 3in (8cm) of snow.

The UK will have to wait until the weekend before average temperatures rise above freezing.

Police said icy roads caused "treacherous" driving conditions across Dorset, with numerous traffic incidents this morning.

A man was killed when his car crashed down an embankment on the A299 near Faversham in Kent.

A spokeswoman for Kent Police said it was not known whether ice had caused the accident on the London-bound sliproad at the Brenley Corner roundabout at 8.30am. No other vehicles were involved.

Twenty pupils were temporarily stranded when a single-decker bus they were travelling in collided with a Ford Fiesta on Rowlands Hill in Wimborne.

Dozens of schools across the UK were closed today because of heavy snow and ice.

A primary school, in Ruthin, North Wales, remained shut after thieves stole the fuel needed to heat its buildings.

Meanwhile councils warned tens of thousands of pensioners could die as a result of the prolonged cold snap.

Fears deepened for gas prices after Russia shut off all gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine, leaving 12 countries without fuel in freezing winter conditions.

Much of Europe has been thrown into chaos by the cold snap.

A rare snowfall in France's Cote d'Azur sent the SNCF national railway into "crisis" mode, halting trains in Provence and the Alps.

All buses in the port city of Marseilles were stopped and surrounding highways were closed.

In Italy, flights resumed in and out of Milan's Malpensa and Linate airports in the early afternoon, but delays and cancellations continued because of an accumulation of a foot (30cm) of snow across the city over nearly two days.

Germany experienced the coldest temperatures, with temperatures plunging to minus 28C (-18.4F).