TYUMEN, December 25 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian woman from Tyumen, west Siberia, was frozen to a metal railway crossing barrier early on Tuesday, local rescue workers said.

The elderly woman was making her way home along a railway crossing when she slipped on a patch of ice. She instinctively grabbed on to the metal part of a nearby barrier to keep her balance. However, as the temperature was about -30 degrees Centigrade (-22 degree Fahrenheit), her bare hand froze to the metal immediately.

She tried to free herself, but in vain. The woman had no mobile phone to call for help, and the area was deserted. She spent about half an hour in the blistering cold, waiting for a passer-by who could help her.

When rescuers and ambulance finally arrived at the scene, they couldn't release the woman immediately, and had to call a welder to free her. She was rushed to hospital with her hand still attached to a part of the metal barrier.

A hospital spokesman said that it was too early to make any conclusions about the severity of the woman's injuries as her hand, finally freed from the metal pipe, had still not thawed out completely.

Last night was the coldest so far this winter in Russia's Urals and west Siberia.