‘Apocalyptic scenes’: Bosnia floods kill 14 people

Heavy rains that flooded towns and touched off landslides left at least 14 people dead in Bosnia on Friday, authorities said.

Jablanica, some 70 kilometres (43 miles) southwest of Sarajevo, appeared to bear the brunt of the downpours, which cut it off from the outside world.

Photos on local media from the Jablanica region showed mudslides coming up to roofs of houses and a mosque with only its minaret sticking out.

A photo, published by regional railways authorities, showed a 200-metre (656-foot) section of a railway track suspended in mid-air after water triggered a massive landslide.

“For now, the bodies of 14 people have been found” in the region of Jablanica, regional government spokesman Darko Jukan told AFP, adding that the toll was likely to rise.

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The government of the Muslim-Croat Federation — that along with the Serbs’ Republika Srpska makes up Bosnia since its 1990s war — has declared a state of natural disaster on its territory and formed a crisis headquarters.

Bosnia’s tripartite presidency deployed the army to the flood-affected region.

“Engineering and rescue units as well as a helicopter from the Bosnia and Herzegovina’s armed forces were urgently engaged to provide urgent assistance to civil authorities in responding to a natural disaster”, a presidency statement said.

Jablanica, with a population of around 4,000, was initially cut off, but on Friday army and civil protection units arrived with heavy machinery to clear away the mud slides.

A number of people from the area were reported missing, the authorities said, while some injured were evacuated with a helicopter from the European Union peacekeeping force (EUFOR).

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‘Apocalyptic scenes’ – head of Bosnia municipality

In Kiseljak, some 20 kilometres west of Sarajevo, houses, gardens and cars were under water, an AFP journalist reported.

The rain started on Thursday around 0900 pm (1900 GMT) and continued all night long, Kiseljak mayor Mladen Misuric Ramljak told AFP.

“Everything was normal until around 0500 am when huge quantities of water poured. We certainly have several hundred houses flooded,” he said, describing what he called a “biblical flood”.

“These are apocalyptic scenes”, head of the nearby Kresevo municipality, Renato Pejak, echoed.

“Even the oldest residents don’t remember so much rain falling in such a short time, that small streams turn into big rivers” and wash away bridges, he told reporters.

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A large part of Bosnia’s population is at risk due to heavy floods and landslides, the federal civil protection administration said in a statement earlier Friday.

The army, firefighters, police and utility companies were working in the affected areas.

In neighbouring Croatia, weather authorities issued a warning for the northern Adriatic coast, Istria peninsula and central part of the country due to the heavy rains.

In a statement, it said that urban flooding and interruption of traffic, communications, electricity and water supply were expected.

In the spring of 2014, the Balkans region was hit by its worst floods in more than a century, which affected 1.6 million people and left 47 people dead in Serbia and Bosnia.

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Scientists warn that climate change is making extreme weather events more frequent.

Torrential rains and strong winds led to widespread flooding in central and eastern Europe last month, killing at least 24 people and devastating towns and villages.

© Agence France-Presse