Floods add to Europe's cold to claim more lives
World | Updated today at 06:00 AM
SOFIA (AFP) - The toll from Europe's winter weather pushed past 360 on Monday when snow- and rain-swollen rivers burst a Bulgarian dam and killed at least eight, while more homeless people perished on frigid city streets.
Four elderly people drowned in their homes in the south-eastern Bulgarian village of Biser after a nearby dam wall broke, submerging the whole village under 2.5m of icy water, the interior ministry said. Another four people died when their cars were swept from bridges into raging rivers in the same region.
'People are in panic,' regional mayor Mihail Liskov said on national radio as a massive rescue effort was under way. 'Ninety per cent of the village is under water.' Two other dams were brimming with water and heavy rains triggered a landslide that derailed a train near the Turkish border. No injuries were reported.
Temperatures touched new lows in parts of Europe, including Switzerland which reported the mercury dipping to minus 35.1 deg C overnight in the eastern Graubuenden canton and the Czech Republic, where the town of Kvilda recorded a winter low of minus 39.4 deg C.
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