- Flash floods, landslides kill 16 in Bosnia
- Severe damage to roads, railways, homes
- Climate change worsens flooding across Europe
Flash floods and landslides in central Bosnia-Herzegovina have killed at least 16 people, cutting off towns and villages and submerging homes in some areas.
Some of the worst incidents occurred at Jablanica, a town on the main route between Mostar and Sarajevo, roughly 70 kilometers (40 miles) to the northeast.
Several other persons have been reported missing, and a state of emergency has been issued.
Vojin Mijatovic, the development minister, said the country had suffered a terrible calamity and urged people to remain calm.
Officials from the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton verified 13 deaths in the area, rather than 16 as previously claimed.
Three additional deaths have been verified in Fojnica.
Search and rescue efforts continue, with ten individuals missing in Herzegovina-Neretva Canton.
Following an overnight downpour, rivers burst their banks, flooding many towns and villages, according to overhead pictures.
Debris washed away or blocked roads, bridges, and railway tracks, while landslides buried houses to their top floors in rocks and earth.
The important M-17 road, which runs alongside the River Neretva near Jablanica, was littered with debris. A 17-kilometer stretch of railway between adjacent Ostrozac and Grabovica to the west was severely damaged. A landslide near the river south of Jablanica left a 200-meter rail hanging in the air.
The local government in Herzegovina-Neretva Canton advised drivers to avoid risky routes near Jablanica.
Further east along the Neretva River, one homeowner informed Bosnian media that water filled their house around 03:30 on Friday, and they just managed to save their son before fleeing to neighbors and witnessing their house fall.
Meanwhile, 20 kilometers west of the capital, in Kiseljak, a torrent of water swamped the streets, submerging cars.
The floods were not limited to Bosnia. In neighboring Montenegro, highways were washed away, cutting off Komarnica.
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Water levels were also rising in some of Croatia’s waterways, and the authorities in Zagreb warned that some neighborhoods of Karlovac could be flooded along the Kupa River.
Floods wreaked havoc across Central Europe last month, with Poland, the Czech Republic, and Romania suffering the worst.
Scientists from the World Weather Attribution (WWA) group said that one four-day stretch was the wettest ever recorded in the region. They said that climate change had significantly exacerbated the floods.
Europe is the fastest-warming continent. According to the Copernicus climate service, the last five years have been 2.3 degrees Celsius warmer than the second part of the nineteenth century.
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