Freezing weather gripped swathes of Europe on Tuesday (January 6), with snow and icy conditions forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights in the Netherlands.

At Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, over 400 flights were cancelled, most of them by the Dutch unit of Air France-KLM, as the winter weather crippled traffic at one of Europe's main transit hubs for a fifth day.

All domestic rail services in the Netherlands were also suspended early on Tuesday after an IT outage compounded disruption across the country's rail network.

Trains began running in parts of the country after 0900 GMT, but problems persisted in the region around Amsterdam, a popular tourist destination.

High-speed Eurostar services to Paris from Amsterdam were either cancelled or running late.

Spanish national Javier Sepulveda said he was trying to get back to his home in Norway for a third day.

He said he started queuing at the KLM help desk at 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday and that six hours later he was still not close to the front of the line.

The 39-year-old described the scene as "chaotic" and "insane".

KLM said it was offering alternative flights where possible and doing everything to help travellers, but it was "overwhelmed with inquiries."

Stranded at Schiphol, Simiao Sun said she had been told she would have to wait three days for a rescheduled flight back to the British city of Birmingham, meaning her child would miss their return to school

Other parts of Europe, including Britain, France and Germany were bracing for another snow-carrying storm to hit on Thursday (January 7) and Friday (January 8).

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

1. PLANE ON TARMAC

2. SIGN OUTSIDE AMSTERDAM’S SCHIPHOL AIRPORT

3. PLANE ON TARMAC

4. PASSENGERS QUEUING

5. CLOCKS INFORMATION BOARD READING (English): “Delays and cancellations due to winter weather"

6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) 39-YEAR-OLD SPANISH PASSENGER, JAVIER SEPULVEDA, SAYING:

"I can describe the situation since Friday afternoon (as) chaotic, unacceptable, frustrating, annoying. I can get more adjectives, but you can imagine what we felt since four days ago. It's totally unacceptable, the situation."

7. PASSENGERS QUEUING

8. FLIGHT BOARD SHOWING CANCELLATIONS AND DELAYS

9. (SOUNDBITE) (English) 39-YEAR-OLD SPANISH PASSENGER, JAVIER SEPULVEDA, SAYING:

"We don't have any kind of information by phone. The internet, the website is not working at all. You can't send any complaint. You can't send any message because they are not receiving anything. So right now, we are like... kind of homeless people, you know what I mean? We don't have any options."

10. PASSENGERS QUEUING

11. CHILD LYING ON FLOOR NEXT TO BAGS

12. PASSENGERS LOOKING AT FLIGHT BOARD

13. (SOUNDBITE) (English) 37-YEAR-OLD LITHUANIAN PASSENGER, ZARECKIS (LAST NAME NOT GIVEN), SAYING:

"Two of our flights were cancelled. We started our trip from Lithuania to Riga, then from Riga to Amsterdam. And we had to go to Las Vegas yesterday, but the flight was also cancelled. So now we are waiting in the queue just to get information about our baggage, which was also lost yesterday. And hopefully we will fly tomorrow to Las Vegas."

14. INTERIOR OF AIRPORT

15. (SOUNDBITE) (English) 37-YEAR-OLD LITHUANIAN PASSENGER, ZARECKIS (LAST NAME NOT GIVEN), SAYING:

"From where we are in Lithuania, there's a lot of snow, and it happens often, and they just don't stop the traffic because of the snow. And here it seems like the whole chaos is going on. So for us, it's strange, and not a lot of information we receive from the airport or from the airlines about what's happening."

16. PASSENGERS QUEUING

17. (SOUNDBITE) (English) 39-YEAR-OLD PASSENGER TRAVELLING TO BRITAIN, SIMIAO SUN, SAYING:

"Yeah, we were flying from South China to Beijing, from Beijing to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Birmingham, but last night the flight got cancelled. It's me and my four-year-old, my partner, and they're staying outside and I'm queuing here at the moment. So the flight got cancelled and then in the morning, about 3 or 4 in the morning, I received a reschedule of my flight, of our flight, which is in three days, and my child would miss school, and we would both miss work. So I'm just queuing here in order to fly to a different destination. There are so many airports in the UK. I'm hoping to get a slightly earlier flight to minimise the problem.”

18. PLANE TAKING OFF

19. PASSENGERS WALKING WITH LUGGAGE OUTSIDE AIRPORT

20. DISPLAY OF OLD KLM PLANE SURROUNDED BY SNOW