A persistent blizzard has blanketed large parts of Spain with 50-year record levels of snow, halting traffic and leaving thousands trapped in cars or in train stations and airports that suspended all services as the snow kept falling on Saturday.

Ten provinces of central Spain were on their highest level of alert.

In the capital, Madrid, authorities called in the military to rescue people from vehicles trapped on everything from small roads to the city’s major thoroughfares.

The national AEMET weather agency had warned that some regions would be receiving more than 24 hours of continuous snowfall.