(Vatican Radio) - An appeal by Pope Francis to pray for the victims of floods in Bosnia-Herzegovina
and Serbia comes amid reports that as many as 40 people have died in the region over
the last three days. Rescue workers have been struggling to evacuate thousands of
people from flooded areas.
Listen to correspondent Stefan Bos' report...
Helicopters
fully loaded with mothers tightly holding their babies and other desperate people
fly across Serbia and neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina in a massive effort to rescue
residents.
But the airlift has come to late for at dozens of people. They drowned,
mainly in Serbia, in what authorities have called the region's worst rainfall and
flooding, since records began 120 years ago.
And some have reportedly watched
in disbelief as an aircraft left family members behind on a roof sticking out of a
sea of water in Bosnia Herzegovina. There was no more place in the helicopter.
BRIDGES
COLLIDE
Rescue workers also try to reach flooded areas in boats, but it isn't
easy.
A bridge span ripped off by the Bosna River is swept downstream and
destroys another bridge near the town of Zavidovici in northern Bosnia-Herzegovina.
And the Bosnian Mine Action Center has warned that floods and as many
as 300 landslides have moved at least some of the many minefields that contaminate
Bosnia-Herzegovina since the 1992-1995
war.
A lack of often adequate
infrastructure is believed to have added to the high death toll in the Balkans.
THOUSANDS
SAVED
Despite the difficulties, tens of thousands of people could be evacuated,
including in Serbia's capital Belgrade, where more than 15-thousand people were forced
to find shelter in schools
and sports halls.
However with more flooding
expected, rescue workers in Serbia and Bosnia Herzegovina face more difficulties.
The
European Union is preparing to help, after requests for more water pumps, expert teams
and helicopters
Heavy rainfall has also caused havoc in other countries in
the region such as Croatia, Hungary, Poland and even Austria.