"Ten people died due to exposure over the last 24 hours across Poland after eight died on Tuesday," Poland's national police spokesman Mariusz Sokolowski told AFP.

Alcohol and homelessness were common factors in the deaths and the victims were primarily men aged 35 to 60, he added.

A similar story played out in neighbouring Czech Republic, where six men died in the past 48 hours, police said.

In Lithuania, cold weather has claimed four lives.

Heavy snow overnight Wednesday to Thursday forced the closure of the international airport in Czech capital Prague and wreaked havoc on road and railway networks, officials said.

An already heavily delayed Czech Airlines plane heading from Prague to Brussels was forced to return shortly after takeoff on Thursday morning as a piece of ice blocked its wing flaps, the airline said.

Heavy snowfall earlier this week grounded flights and caused transport chaos on Poland's road and rail networks. Temperatures plunged Tuesday night to minus 33 degrees Celsius (minus 27.4 Fahrenheit) in the eastern city of Bialystok near Poland's eastern border with Belarus.

Authorities in Poland have 3,000 prison inmates armed with shovels on standby to clear snow and ice.

A total 289 people died of exposure in 2009 in Poland, including 119 victims in January alone, according to police statistics.

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