30 dead in record-setting Balkans flooding

Record 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.

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.

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

In Serbia, which saw eight deaths, emergency crews and soldiers were using boats and helicopters to rescue thousands trapped in the town of Obrenovac, near Belgrade. The overflowing waters there are now threatening Serbia’s biggest power plant.

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

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