The Siberian cold snap causes 124 dead in Central Europe and the Balkans

The wave of Siberian cold that sweeps Central Europe and the Balkans for the past eleven days has caused so far 124 dead in the region, where due to melting recorded floods in the South of Bulgaria.

The most affected country is Romania, with 38 dead, two in the last 24 hours, said today the Ministry of health.

Meteorological authorities maintain alertness cold until Sunday and heavy snow still causing problems of movement throughout the country.

In Hungary in the last 24 hours two people have died by hypothermia and another by inhaling carbon monoxide due to the poor functioning of the heating, with what he figures total by the temporary amounting to 17, news agency MTI State.

The service of meteorology declared a State of alert yellow in 12 provinces and orange in two, 19 in total, the storm of snow due to winds of up to 70 u000akilometres per hour. According to forecasts, the weather situation will not change Hungary in the coming seven days.

In Czech Republic cold victims rises to 19, mostly homelessness, and records of minimum in many weather stations in the country, reported the Czech authorities.

At the meteorological station of Kvilda-Pearl, in the southern mountains of Sumava, occurred Sunday night 39.4 degrees below zero, the lowest nationwide, although in the coming days to beat the record of 42.2 degrees below zero, which dates back to 1929.

In Serbia, where there have been ten victims due to low temperatures, thick layers of ice have been formed in several rivers and the authorities are preparing plans to use explosives and icebreaker to prevent the overflow of water.

Is a difficult situation in the Ibar River, at the height of the city of Kraljevo, in the South, and in the u000aDanube, where there is danger of forming a layer of 100 km long in the leg towards the hydroelectric power of Klisura, in the East, bordering Romania.

About 70,000 citizens of mountainous villages are isolated and so far they have evacuated to 177 people who needed medical care.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the number of victims of the cold has risen today to eleven, then that the bodies of two elderly women were found the village of Goranci, close to Mostar, in the South, blocked by the snowfall, according to rescue teams.

In the same area, in the village of Zijemlje, some 120 citizens carry four days without electricity, phone lines and water, and rescue teams were not able to travel there in helicopters from Banja Luka due to bad weather conditions.

Also critical is the situation in the East Bosnian mountain village of Srebrenica, particularly in Luka environments, where the u000aheavy snowfall have blocked from a few weeks ago the access to some 200 citizens.

In Bulgaria the cold storm left six dead and subsequent floods by melting caused other twelve victims.

The most damage occurred in the small town of Biser, near the southern town of Harmanli and the border with Greece, and where breakage of a dam by the thaw after the locality.

A wave of almost three meters flooded on Monday in the early hours of the morning this village of 800 inhabitants, where several Civil protection rescue teams and army have worked throughout the night evacuating and searching for people in the rubble of destroyed homes.

In neighbouring Greece three elderly people have died since Sunday because of flooding, snow and the strong storm that whips these days especially the North of the country, Greece.

The Greek authorities have evicted people in the North of Greece u000afearing to be overflow dams from the neighboring Bulgaria.

In other countries in the region have been also fatalities by the snow storm, so in Austria will have recorded five deaths, and a dead, respectively, in Montenegro, Macedonia and Slovakia.

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