Four people died in Romania and one in Bulgaria as snowstorms hit parts of southeastern Europe, government and media sources said Friday.

An 87-year-old woman was found dead in the street, not far from her home in southern Romania, which is covered by a thick blanket of snow, health official Raed Arafat said.

Two more people died waiting for an ambulance which could not reach their homes due to heavy snow.

On Thursday, a man died of hypothermia after snow smothered his car. Rescuers saved a woman in the same vehicle.

A dozen people, including a baby and two pregnant women, were taken to hospital by helicopter.

Around 100 people were still stranded in their cars on snow-clogged roads, the interior ministry said.

Dozens of roads were closed to traffic and 60 trains cancelled.

In neighbouring Bulgaria media reported a homeless man died of cold in a Sofia bus shelter, as several towns around the country remained under a state of emergency and thousands of households were without power.

While power was restored in many of the hardest-hit regions, more than 43,500 households in 221 localities were still without it, as emergency teams had to battle two-metre (6.5-foot) snowdrifts in some places to reconnect them, the interior ministry said.

Eight small municipalities around the country were also under a state of emergency and school classes were cancelled in several regions in central and northern Bulgaria Friday.

The ministry however lifted a ban on all road freight traffic across Bulgaria, with the exception of certain roads in 10 regions to the north and east, where heavy snowfall again occurred Friday.

Sofia airport also announced all air traffic was back on schedule as of 3:00 pm (1300GMT).

On Thursday, the authorities had declared the highest "code red" traffic alert, advising everyone to avoid road travel.

Newspapers reported Friday that a woman in northern Bulgaria had given birth in an ambulance as it was trapped in the snow.

Forecasters warned that a Siberian cold would grip the country over the next five days with temperatures expected to fall to minus 12 degrees Celsius (10.4 Fahrenheit) Friday night and as far as minus 20 in some places next week.