受极端天气影响，欧洲大部分国家本周继续遭遇暴雪，导致多数航班延误或取消，数千乘客滞留机场。为安抚乘客情绪，德国法兰克福国际机场特意请四名小丑到候机大厅表演。这四名小丑身穿颜色鲜艳的演出服，有的还踩着高跷走来走去。据机场发言人称，滞留在机场的很多乘客都带着孩子，对他们来说这样漫长的等待显得更加难熬，于是在会想出请小丑来表演的主意，帮他们打发时间。

A clown on stilts trys to entertain air passengers as they wait for flights at the airport the central German city of Frankfurt am Main on December 19. Frankfurt airport. (Agencies)

With travellers frazzled by hundreds of flight cancellations, Germany's busiest airport has hired clowns to help them and their children pass the hours, a spokeswoman said Monday.

"Four clowns are performing in the terminal halls," the spokeswoman for Frankfurt's international airport told AFP.

"We came up with the idea for the kids, who are finding the delays particularly trying."

The clowns, outfitted in brightly coloured costumes and some parading on stilts, started working over the weekend, when heavy snowfall led to hundreds of flights being scrapped amid chaos in the European air traffic network.

Fights broke out at the airport among stressed-out holiday travellers late Friday, according to press reports, leading police to send in reinforcements.

More than 1,000 stranded passengers had to spend the night from Sunday to Monday at the airport, where camp beds were set up in the terminals.

On Sunday about half of Frankfurt's scheduled 1,329 flights were grounded, mainly because other airports around Europe were closed due to extreme winter weather.

Over 340 flights were axed by the early afternoon on Monday.

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(Agencies)

（中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑）