Heavy snow has stranded nearly 1,000 airline passengers and closed five highways in northeast China's Jilin Province.

 

The province is expected to get more snow by Saturday night, and the public is advised to pay special attention to road safety and reschedule travel, Liu Zheng, a senior engineer with the provincial observatory, said on Saturday.

 

The snow, which began at noon on Friday, forced Longjia International Airport in Changchun, the provincial capital, to close later in the day. Those closures delayed 18 flights and forced 14 others to be canceled. Airport authorities said that as a result, about 1,000 passengers had to stay at hotels or the airport.

 

The airport reopened at around 8 a.m. on Saturday, but by 1 p.m. more than 200 delayed passengers were still waiting to leave, according to the airport.

 

The five highways, which were closed on Friday evening, reopened to traffic on Saturday morning, but the provincial highway administration said they might have to be closed again.

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(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2007)