China ? Closed roads and delayed flights left thousands of travelers stranded today following blizzards and extreme cold that killed four people and affected 1.6 million others in northwestern China, a government spokesman said.

Snowstorms delayed 122 flights in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang region, on Monday, leaving more than 4,000 passengers stranded, and blocked roads from nine avalanches stranded more than 1,000 passengers in the region, according to a Urumqi government spokesman.

Four people had died because of the bad weather, the official said today. He did not give details.

Rescue workers were evacuating thousands of rural residents to safer ground at lower altitudes because of the latest storm front, expected to last through Wednesday and plunge temperatures to minus 45 degrees.

In neighboring Mongolia, an official appealed for help from the international community as his country battles the most severe winter it has seen in three decades.

Storms in China’s far western Xinjiang flattened or damaged about 100,000 homes, and more than 15,000 head of livestock were killed by the cold front that began on Sunday night, according to Xinjiang Meteorological Station forecaster Wei Rongqing.