Spare a thought for Siberian village freezing at -50C

Before complaining too much about Britain's current cold snap, spare a thought for the residents of Artyk, a small village in deepest Siberia. Temperatures on New Year's Eve got down to -50C, and have plummeted further still in recent days.

Weather this cold is not out of the ordinary for the Yakutsk region, in eastern Siberia, but a pipeline leak on 26 December shut down the local heating system, and nearly 200 residents were left to battle the inhuman temperatures without central heating. Wood and coal stoves were shipped in from nearby towns, but as of yesterday, several of the houses had yet to have their mains heating restored.

Even when there is heating, the region isn't exactly a tropical paradise. Artyk is less than 150 miles away from Oimyakon, known as the "Pole of Cold" the world's coldest inhabited place, where temperatures can get down to -70C. In a separate incident in the same region, a lorry drove into a heating pipe in the village of Markha on 28 December, which left nearly 2,000 people without heating over the new year. The pipes are above ground because the permafrost makes it impossible to lay them underground.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Emergencies told Russian television yesterday that teams had been dispatched to the villages and heating should be restored soon. He confirmed that more than 100 children are living in the apartment blocks affected. Another official said that most of those without heating had managed to move in with friends and relatives temporarily.

Moscow was also experiencing its coldest day of the winter so far yesterday, with temperatures down to -17C. But Russians are accustomed to dealing with the cold. Even in temperatures of -30C, planes land, public transport runs like clockwork, children go to school, and market traders continue to work outdoors.