Snow and wind leave 11,000 without electricity

More than 11,000 homes were last nightwithout power as snow and heavy winds brought disruption and travel chaos to the north of the country.

More than 11,000 homes were last nightwithout power as snow and heavy winds brought disruption and travel chaos to the north of the country.

Scotland was worst hit by the white-out conditions which closed schools and main roads.Two people were injured on the main Inverness to Edinburgh railway line when a £3m Turbostar train hit a tree which had fallen on the line near Blair Atholl, Perthshire. The driver of the 6.48am ScotRail service suffered facial injuries and a woman passenger's leg was hurt when the train's front wheels came off the rails.

Schools throughout Aberdeenshire, Shetland, Dundee and Tayside were closed for the day as were several A roads across the country. The worst hit areas were Perthshire and Tayside, with the main A9 road linking Perth to Glasgow blocked for part of the day, schools shut and electricity cut to 5,000 homes.

About 11,000 households were without power as snow and high winds cut supplies to Scottish Hydro-Electric customers, with 3,000 homes in the Highlands, 2,900 in the North-east and 5,000 in Tayside affected.

More than 100 passengers on board a ferry from Lerwick, Shetland finally docked safely last night after a 12-hour journey turned into a 40-hour odyssey which only ended when the captain diverted to another port. The ferry had set out on Sunday night, expecting to dock at Aberdeen. Bad weather made that impossible and the boat remained off shore in heavy seas, waiting for conditions to ease. Finally, with no signs of improvement, the ferry was diverted to Invergordon.

And a four-month-old baby girl from Lochinver who had been due at hospital in Glasgow for treatment for bronchial pneumonia, had to be diverted to Stornaway in the Western Isles aboard a coastguard helicopter when snow and ice prevented the RAF taking off from Lossiemouth.