The death toll from floods and landslides in Bosnia has risen to 22, while rescue teams are still searching for six missing people, according to authorities.
Due to further heavy rains expected, Civil Protection ordered late Tuesday the immediate evacuation of citizens from the Jablanica and Konjic regions, the most affected by Friday’s floods.
“The number of deaths in the floods in the territory of Herzegovina-Neretva is 19,” said the canton government. The other three victims were found in the Central Bosnia canton.
Still looking for the missing
Floods and landslides that hit the country on Friday washed away roads, railways and bridges, cutting off many populated areas from the rest of the country, with authorities still working to connect some of them.
Donja Jablanica, located about 70 kilometers southwest of the capital, Sarajevo, appears to have suffered the worst of the torrential rains, which cut it off from the rest of the country. The village was buried under mud, rocks and landslides, including granite debris from a nearby quarry, with houses destroyed and vehicles damaged.
Rescue teams are still searching for the missing, two in Konjic and four in Jablanica, authorities said. The government of the Croatian-Muslim Federation, one of the two entities making up Bosnia along with Republika Srpska, declared a state of natural disaster and established a crisis headquarters on Friday.
The EU Civil Protection Mechanism has also been activated and four countries in the region have already sent teams on the ground since the weekend. Tuesday was declared a day of mourning in the territory of Bosnia due to catastrophic floods.
