PARIS/LONDON - Heavy snowfall hit large parts of France on Sunday, putting Paris under a picturesque blanket of white stuff but causing major disruptions to air, road and rail transport.With up to 20 centimetres (eight inches) of snow falling in the most-affected areas over the weekend, more than a quarter of France’s regions were on alert and the weather service warned that more snowfall was expected overnight.Snow covered the largely empty streets of Paris, where drivers were hesitant to take to the icy roads and all bus services were cancelled.But a few braved the weather including a man in a red-and-blue snowsuit seen cross-country skiing on the streets of Montmartre and young girls sledding beneath the hill-top Sacre Coeur Basilica.The city’s famed Metro was largely unaffected, but about 100 passengers had to be evacuated when a subway train was blocked on an exposed bridge that passes over the River Seine.Firefighters spent an hour assisting the passengers, with boats deployed on the river in case anyone fell in.The capital’s airports struggled to deal with the thick covering of snow, with 40 percent of flights cancelled at Charles de Gaulle and Orly. Flagship carrier Air France said it had managed to go ahead with all of its long-haul flights and 60 percent of its short- and medium-haul journeys, with average delays of 45 mins.Airport officials said they had asked airlines to maintain a 40 percent reduction in flights on Monday because more snowfall was expected.The snow also caused delays on France’s TGV high-speed rail network, with rail officials urging travellers to if possible put off journeys planned for Sunday.Road conditions were treacherous and a Polish truck driver was killed Sunday after he lost control and crashed his Spanish-registered lorry on a highway near the western town of Liguge. Six people were killed on the slippery French roads earlier during the weekend, including three French soldiers about to join comrades fighting in Mali. The weather caused power cuts in several regions, including in the southern Midi-Pyrenees region where 25,000 homes were without electricity.London’s Heathrow Airport also warned of further flight cancellations on Monday which would leave thousands more passengers stranded in the fourth day of delays after heavy snow swept across Britain.The airport, one of the world’s busiest, cancelled 260 flights on Sunday, the equivalent of 20 percent of its usual schedule. Meanwhile the Eurostar train service also cancelled four trains due to snow and ice. As the bad weather that began on Friday looks set to continue into next week, Heathrow said it was cancelling ten percent of flights planned for Monday.“Latest forecasts for tomorrow show a high probability of low visibility conditions. This will reduce the capacity of the airport and without action would cause significant disruption to passengers and flights,” a statement said. It said the cancellations on Monday would allow more time for other aircraft to take off and land, reducing the likelihood that there would be last-minute cancellations that would cause even more disruption to travellers.Britain is braced for a continuation of the bad weather which has left hundreds of homes without power, closed schools and caused transport chaos in recent days, with several weather warnings in place for overnight Sunday.Four climbers were killed in an avalanche in the Scottish Highlands on Saturday. The two men and two women were found dead after the accident near Glencoe, and another women is in critical condition.In northern China, snow forced the cancellation of more than 100 flights and the closure of dozens of highways, authorities said Sunday.Beijing Capital International Airport’s official website said a total of 111 flights were cancelled at the facility, including 16 international ones. Another 68 flights were delayed, with 11 of those on international routes.More than 40 highways in northern China were closed due to the snow, the government’s official weather website said. No accidents were reported. As of 8:00 am Sunday weather authorities recorded up to 8.6 centimetres (3.4 inches) of snow in a mountainous part of northwestern Beijing near the Great Wall of China.Much smaller amounts fell in central Beijing and had largely stopped by Sunday afternoon.