In pictures: Christmas travel chaos

Many airline passengers were forced to spend Monday night at London(***)s Heathrow Airport as freezing weather threatened to play havoc with Christmas travel plans [AFP]

The boss of British airports operator BAA has apologised for the ongoing chaos at Heathrow and other airports in the UK [AFP]

Heavy snowfall has also grounded flights in German cities such as Dusseldorf, creating chaos throughout the European air-traffic network, with more snow predicted [AFP]

At Charles de Gaulle-Roissy airport in France, rescuers from the Protection Civile handed out camp beds to stranded passengers after up to 40 per cent of flights were cancelled [AFP]

Cancellations and delays have struck several other French airports, including Strasbourg in the east, which closed down for hours on Monday morning, authorities said [AFP]

Road traffic has also been heavily affected by bad weather, forcing authorities in France, for instance, to ban heavy vehicles from the roads around Paris [AFP]

Children made snowmen on the whitened lawns in front of the Eiffel Tower and snowboarders took to the northern hills, an unusual sight in a city known for its rainy, temperate weather [AFP]

At the Gare du Nord train station in the French capital, hundreds of passengers waited for their trains that were heavily delayed because of the snow. The SNCF handed out 12,000 ready meals and booked 500 hotel rooms for stranded passengers [AFP]

The situation was no different in Belgium. Passengers at Brussels(***) national airport in Zaventem were stranded due to lack of de-icing liquid following heavy snowfall [AFP]