One of the harshest winters in decades continued to grip Italy on Saturday, bringing the number of victims to at least 60, local media said.

A number of small towns remained isolated in worst hit central Italy, where extraordinary snowfalls that had not occurred in decades disrupted transport and cut power-lines forcing thousands of families to evacuate.

On Saturday, the death toll of victims rose to at least 60, many being clochards and elderly people who were found frozen to death, Rai state television said.

Blanketed Rome was put under high alert, with schools and public offices closed, while half flights were grounded at the capital's international airport.

Trains were delayed or cancelled throughout Italy, while stretches of railway track and highways were temporarily closed, which caused massive traffic jams that trapped thousands of motorists for hours.

The city massively increased its stock of salt and snow plows, banning from the roads cars without snow chains or snow tyres, while many citizens left supermarket shelves empty in anticipation of possible shop shortages, which prompted price rises.

A sharp debate was aroused throughout Italy as Mayor Gianni Alemanno, responding to critics for his insufficient reaction to the snowfall that brought Rome to a standstill for days, said the Civil Protection Agency no longer exists in Italy.

"Today the people operating at the Civil Protection Agency are just paper pushers who pass down information leaving it up to various local councils and authorities to intervene,"he was quoted as saying by local media.

Temperatures went below zero throughout Italy, reaching 20 degrees below zero in northern Piemonte region and 30 degrees below zero on Mount Rosa, while in northern Trieste a 168 km/h bora injured many people.

According to Michele Marini, mayor of Frosinone, a town close to Rome, the damage amounted to several million euros.

"We have roads and sidewalks damaged, light poles broken, fallen trees. We hope the government helps us support all these costs," he was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency.

"Frosinone had not experienced such a snowfall since the Fifties. The upper part of the city has accumulated ninety centimeters of snow, which had never happened before," he said.

The cold snap, which experts say might last until the middle of the next week, drove some wild animals close to inhabited areas. A man was reportedly injured by a wolf near central Rimini while he was going to work.