Three people, including a 13-year-old boy, drowned and two were missing in floods that hit Romania over the weekend, dpa quoted Interior Minister Gabriel Oprea as saying Monday. Hardest-hit was the south, where rivers swelled following heavy rainfall and melting of snow in the mountains. Emergency services reinforced the banks with sandbags in many places, as more rain was expected in the coming days. Flooding also happened in Romania's Balkan neighbours Bulgaria and Serbia. In Bulgaria, several municipalities declared a state of emergency as water from the river Lom flooded houses, roads and bridges, the BTA news agency reported. Landslides caused by running water disrupted traffic on several roads in the south. Serbian authorities said Monday the situation was critical following flooding in central municipalities of Lucani and in villages along the Ovcar gorge, as well as in Aleksinac in the east. Hundreds of people had to be evacuated from their homes and more may yet have to be moved out of the way as waters are expected to continue rising in western, central and eastern Serbia in the coming days.
