Heavy snow buries parts of Russia

In south west Russia, villages and towns have been snowed in. Video footage from social media shows people struggling through metres of snow.

The town of Tuapse in the Krasnodar region on the Black Sea was severely impacted. In the first half of the week, recurring heavy snowfalls there led to a snow cover of at least 164 centimetres.

Causing these huge amounts of fresh snow was cold air moving over the comparatively warm Black Sea. This resulted in heavy and long-lasting snow showers.

Snow has now left the area but continues to fall to the east around former Winter Olympic host city Sochi and neighbouring country Georgia.