Balkans snowstorm causes traffic disruption and leaves homes without electricity
23 December 2024, 16:24
Authorities in Croatia and Bosnia urged citizens to avoid travel.
A snowstorm across the Balkans has caused traffic disruption, closed schools and left thousands of homes without electricity in Croatia and Bosnia.
The weather also hampered efforts in Slovenia to reach two hikers stranded in the Alps.
The hikers from Hungary – a man and a woman – got lost on Sunday in poor weather in the mountains north of the capital, Ljubljana, the STA news agency reported. One has a broken leg, it said.
The report said a rescue mission that was suspended overnight due to high winds and an avalanche risk resumed on Monday, but a helicopter could not take off in bad weather to reach the pair at an altitude of 5,600 feet, officials and media said.
Rescuers by mid-afternoon reached the woman but were unable to immediately locate the injured man, said Jernej Lanisek, who is leading the rescue mission.
In Bosnia, a Turkish woman and her daughter got their car stuck in snow on a mountain in the south and were pulled out by a rescue team.
In Croatia, traffic was banned on most roads in the central region of Lika and along some sections of motorways. Storms along the Adriatic Sea coastline shut down ferries to the islands and halted traffic on roads towards central areas.
All bus departures from the coastal town of Split towards the capital, Zagreb, were cancelled on Monday, regional N1 television reported.
Authorities in Croatia and Bosnia urged citizens to avoid travel.
Bosnia’s government suspended classes on Monday in schools in the north-west due to heavy snow. Nearly 200,000 homes faced power outages, while trucks and other heavy vehicles were banned from roads in many areas.
The snowstorm is forecast to move to Serbia, where meteorologists warned people in the west to avoid travel and prepare for possible power cuts.
