Icy roads cause havoc
At least 20 people were injured in crashes across Britain as freezing conditions left many roads dangerously slippery.
A coach carrying 29 Royal Marines bound for Afghanistan skidded off an icy road into a tree, leaving six injured and their civilian driver in a serious condition.
The troops, from Plymouth-based 42 Commando, were heading for RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire when the crash happened on the A40 at Puesdown, south-east of Cheltenham, just after 5am.
Just over half an hour earlier, a minibus with 14 people on board crashed nearby at Highnam, near the A40 to the west of Gloucester.
Twelve people were taken to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, one with serious injuries.
A taxi driver saved a 28-year-old woman whose car ended up upside down in the village pond at Bishop Burton, near Beverley, East Yorkshire.
Father-of-one James Brown, 41, from Beverley, defied repeated warnings from a 999 operator not to go into the freezing pond.
Humberside Fire Service said the woman was taken to Hull Royal Infirmary suffering from shock and the effects of the cold.
Parts of the Gloucestershire countryside were flooded when the Severn Bore - a surge wave which flows along the narrow Severn Estuary - rushed past.
