London, Dec 31 (IANS) The toll in Britain’s cold weather reached at least nine after a woman died when her car plunged into a pond in freezing temperatures Wednesday night.
Fire crews pulled out the woman from the pond near the city of Bristol in southwest England.

Across the country at least nine people have died amid forecasts of a chilly New Year’s Eve with the mercury set to dip below zero in many areas.

Freezing conditions claimed the lives of three climbers caught up in avalanches on the mountains of Ben Nevis and Torridon in Scotland.

Three others were killed in a car crash on a snowy stretch of a highway in northern region of Yorkshire.

Police divers pulled a body from a frozen lake near Ringstead in northeastern England and continued searching for another Monday night.

A police spokesman said: “We believe blizzard conditions could have hit them very suddenly.”

An electrician died from the cold after locking himself out of his house and collapsing in his back garden in the Isle of Lewis, Scotland.