Severe flooding in Balkans leaves 20 dead

Severe flooding in the Balkans has left least 20 people dead in Serbia and Bosnia and is forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes, authorities said.

The flooding is the worst since records began 120 years ago, according to meteorologists, who said it is due to the region getting three months of rain in just three days.

Goran Mihajlovic, from Serbia's Weather Centre, said that such rainfall happens once in a hundred years.

In the eastern Bosnian town of Bijeljina, some 10,000 people were being evacuated after the rain-swollen Sava River surged through flood defences.

The Serbian town of Obrenovac, 30 km southwest of the capital Belgrade, was said to be under 2 to 3 metres of water.

Officials in Bosnia said 12 people had died and more bodies could be found as the water recedes from dozens of cities flooded in the past three days.

Residents stood on roofs and terraces waiting to be rescued, while soldiers in amphibious military vehicles tried to evacuate an estimated 700 people, mainly women and children, from a primary school located on higher ground.

In other places, the water had reached the second floor of people’s homes and they had to be rescued by helicopter from their roofs.

The overflowing waters there are now threatening Serbia’s biggest power plant an some 95,000 homes are without electricty.

Prime minister Aleksandar Vucic told a press conference that a new flood wave on the Sava River will hit on Sunday evening.

“Now we have to sit and wait, to wait for that next wave and to hope,” he said.

Thousands of volunteers have responded to the government’s appeal to help build up flood defences around the towns along the Sava.

Agencies