Weather forecasters predict no immediate relief from the deadly cold wave that is gripping central and eastern Europe.

The frigid temperatures have killed at least 123 people this week with thermometers plunging as low as minus 25 degrees Celsius in some places.

In Serbia, some farmers reported finding chickens frozen to death with their eggs frozen solid.

Eleven-thousand Serbian villagers in the mountains have been completely cut off by ice and heavy snow.

Residents of a Hungarian town scavenged pieces of coal from an abandoned mine to keep warm while some supermarkets in Kyiv, Ukraine reported food shortages.

The bitterly cold weather has stranded travelers across Europe with roads blocked by snow, airplanes grounded, and trains unable to move.

Meteorologists blame the weather on a strong high pressure system that has pushed cold Siberian air across the continent.

Until this week, Europeans had been enjoying an unusually mild winter with spring-like temperatures in many cities.