10 dead as storms hit Balkans
04/07/2005 - 18:53:34At least 10 people have been killed and two are missing as storms and floods hit large areas of the eastern Balkans, leaving thousands of people stranded.
Hundreds of people were evacuated across Bulgaria’s worst-hit regions of Veliko Tarnovo, Targovishte, Stara Zagora and Shumen.
An emergency was declared by authorities in four communities in the Shumen region and two districts near Targovishte.
Dozens of towns and villages in some 11 regions were flooded and suffered severe damage, the civil defence agency said in a statement.
Two people were killed by lightning in the central-southern town of Parvomai over the weekend, and a third man was also found dead near Plovdiv, probably also struck by lightning.
An elderly man was found drowned in his home in the village of Suha Reka, near the north-eastern city of Shumen, police reported.
Two women were missing Monday in a remote village in the central-northern region of Targovishte.
The Yantra River burst its banks in the central city of Veliko Tarnovo and flooded several neighbourhoods, including a newly reconstructed 13th-century church. Rescue teams struggled overnight to save at least 35 people stranded by the high waters.
Dozens of roads, including the eastern section of the highway linking the capital, Sofia, with the Black sea port of Varna, were flooded.
Railroads in eastern Bulgaria also suffered damage, causing severe traffic delays.
In neighbouring Romania, thousands of people were stranded as the flooding swept 12 counties in the south, east and centre of the country. A state of emergency was declared in Olt county after an upstream dike burst, sending water sweeping through the villages of Schitu and Serbanesti.
Three women and a man drowned in their homes, police said. A one-year-old child and his grandmother were later found dead. Hundreds of residents were evacuated, and authorities delivered bottled water and other basic supplies.
In Romania’s Black Sea region of Constanta, 20 villages lost electricity and 200 homes were flooded, said top government official Danut Culetu. Some roads and a bridge were flooded and patients were transported to hospital by helicopter, he said.
The US Embassy in Bucharest postponed its Independence Day celebrations scheduled for Monday evening because of the rain. The party will be held tomorrow.
The Romanian government asked the European Union today for financial relief after April floods caused an estimated £300 million in damage in the western province of Banat.
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