Domodedovo International Airport, which handles a daily average of more than 55,000 travellers, reported a total power outage at around 8:00 am (0700 GMT).

An emergency power supply unit allowed the airport to receive the approaching traffic but all arrivals and departures were suspended two hours later, a spokeswoman told NTV television.

Some 16,000 people were left stranded at the facility and airport officials said they did not expect the problems to be resolved before the evening.

The city's second-largest airport Sheremetyevo remained open but experiencing delays of up to two hours on some routes.

The airport had initially hoped to pick up some of Domodedovo's arrivals, but a spokeswoman said that those plans were being put on hold.

Temperatures in Russia's capital hovered around the freezing point throughout the weekend, producing unseasonable rain showers that turned the city into what one television station described as a "concrete skating rink".

The warm front left some residents putting mattresses on their cars to save them from the massive icicles dropping from the city's buildings.

Moscow officials advised the city's 10-million-plus inhabitants to stay at home, with a mayor's office spokesman telling Interfax that people should not venture outside "unless there was an extreme emergency".

The freezing rain also damaged power supply lines used by the city's trams and trolley buses, with officials ordering 96 extra buses out onto the streets to cover the affected routes.

"I wanted to leave the car at home and take the trolley, but those are not moving either," one man told NTV television while digging his car out from under the snow.

Further problems were reported on Moscow's suburban train routes. A traffic spokesman told Interfax that there were delays throughout the region "affecting almost all the destination points".

Various news reports said that power outages had affected some 150 settlements around the city and other parts of central Russia, with more than 100,000 people left without electricity by midday.

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