FIER, Albania, Jan 8 (Reuters) – A man was found drowned on Thursday in the Albanian city of Durres and emergency teams worked around the clock to evacuate dozens of people from flooded houses hit by heavy rainfall.
The Western Balkan countries have seen disruption from snow and other winter weather since Sunday, with the closure of roads and railway lines, power cuts and drinking water affected.
Emergency teams were using boats to evacuate villagers trapped in flooded houses in the area around other southwestern Albanian towns of Fier and Vlora, after the Viosa River rose to over 9 metres, the defence ministry said.
A 55-year-old municipal worker who went missing on Tuesday was found dead in a drainage canal in Durres, probably swept away by the current, according to the interior ministry.
The emergency services said they were working to remove water from around 800 homes and buildings, after sheltering around 300 people in the army and police facilities.
In neighbouring Kosovo, where vast areas of land have been flooded in the past days, the rain was replaced by snow on Thursday. Bosnia has also been hit by snow.
“It is very difficult to function like this, the streets are not cleared, especially for pedestrians,” said Armin Hasanovic, a resident of the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo.
The temperature of -14 degrees Celsius (7 degrees Fahrenheit) was recorded on Thursday morning in the Croatian capital of Zagreb, with meteorologists forecasting a new cold spell on Sunday with even lower temperatures.
(Reporting by Florion Goga in Albania, Fatos Bytyci in Kosovo, Antonio Bronic in Zagreb, Amel Emric in Sarajevo, Writing by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Alison Williams)
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