THE wintry blast which has swept across Britain is expected to give way to rain this week.
But rescue services were kept busy in the aftermath of gales, snow and low temperatures.
A seriously injured captain and five other people were airlifted off a cargo ship by a Royal Navy helicopter.
The chopper from RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall ma
naged to rescue the skipper of the 13,000-tonne Horncliff after the RAF was hampered by force nine gales on Friday night.
Meanwhile, at Blackpool, a temporary exclusion zone has been set up around the Riverdance cargo ship to protect its cargo from potential scavengers, after hundreds of packets of McVitie's chocolate biscuits from the ship's cargo washed up on the beach yesterday morning.
On the roads in Scotland, two people died in accidents in Aberdeenshire and Perth.
The victim of the Aberdeenshire crash, on an unclassified road between Rothienorman and Fyvie, was a 21-year-old mother. The 23-year-old male driver and the couple's one-year-old daughter escaped injury.
Grampian Police said weather conditions at the scene of the crash were poor, with snow and ice covering the road.
A woman was killed on Dunkeld Road in Perth when an Alfa Romeo carrying four people crashed into a wall.
The woman, who had been a passenger in the car, was declared dead at the scene, while a male passenger was taken to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee with a serious head injury.
The two other people in the car suffered minor injuries.
Power cuts across Britain caused by gale force winds and snow affected a total of 45,000 customers.
The full article contains 279 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
