MORE than a quarter of Bosnia's four million people have been affected by the worst flooding to hit the Balkans in more than a century, the government said yesterday, warning of "terrifying" destruction comparable to the region's 1992-95 war.
The floods extended across Serbia and Bosnia, where receding waters in some of the worst-hit areas are now revealing the extent of the devastation.
Homes have been toppled or submerged in mud, trees toppled and villages strewn with the bodies of dead livestock.
"The consequences of the floods are terrifying," Bosnian foreign minister Zlatko Lagumdzija told a news conference. "The physical destruction is not less than the destruction caused by the war."
He said more than 100,000 houses and other buildings were no longer usable. "During the war, many people lost everything," he said. "Today, again they have nothing."
The discovery of a body in northern Bosnia yesterday raised the regional death toll to at least 38, but the figure was likely to rise further.
Even as the crisis eased in some areas, a new wave of flooding from the swollen River Sava threatened other areas, notably Serbia's largest power plant, the Nikola Tesla complex, 18 miles southwest of the capital, Belgrade.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article