| Arctic weather kills 71 in Poland December 2, 1998 WARSAW (Reuters) -- Seventy one people have frozen to death in Poland since the country was gripped by a record-low cold snap in mid-November, police said on Wednesday. The cold weather, which produced an average temperature of minus 10 degrees Celsius with the mercury dipping as low as minus 26 in some areas, has already claimed 17 more lives than the whole winter of 1997-1998. The victims are often inebriated, elderly and homeless, police said. The latest victim was a 77-year-old woman from north-western Poland who had lived alone in on unheated house, police spokeswoman Grazyna Puchalska said. Another victim was a teenager in south-eastern Poland who had probably fallen asleep outdoors after sniffing glue to intoxicate himself, a common practice among the country's drug users, she said. "The boy was found with a plastic bag around his head and remains of toxic glue on it," she said. The cold eased somewhat to near freezing at the weekend but Arctic weather with temperatures of minus 20 degrees was again reported in north-eastern Poland on Tuesday night.
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