Chicago's an ice kind of town in America's big freeze

Ice clings to trees in Chicago along Lake Michigan, while more than 100 drivers who were trapped in their cars for up to 12 hours in minus 11C temperatures were rescued in Indiana.

Rescuers worked frantically to reach the motorists who were caught on a 10-mile stretch of highway as up to 16 inches of snow fell.

State highway department spokesman Jim Pinkerton said: "As soon as the plows go through an area, the wind is blowing fresh snow right back into the roads. It is just really difficult for us to keep up against that wind and snow."

At least 11 deaths in four states have been attributed to the storm. Four people died in car crashes, and a 79-year-old man snow-blowing his drive in western Wisconsin was killed when a plow truck backed into him. Four men in Michigan and one in Minnesota died after shoveling or blowing snow, and Kennenth Swanson, 58, of rural Wisconsin, died when a metal shed collapsed, pinning him under debris and about three feet of snow.

A slow-moving storm has been crawling across the central US since last week. Nearly two feet of snow fell before it stretched further east, with whiteouts in parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.

The upper Midwest also has been gripped by freezing wind chill, and schools in Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and other states shut because of the snow and cold.

But hundreds of American football fans still turned out for free tickets to last night's game between the Minnesota Vikings and the New York Giants in Detroit. The game was moved after the Minneapolis Metrodome's inflated roof collapsed under the weight of heavy snow.