BELGRADE, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Snowbound villagers fought off
starving wolves and road-clearing bulldozers froze solid as a
Siberian frost clutched much of the Balkans in its icy grip for
the second straight week, killing at least a dozen people.
Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and
Albania all registered record or near-record low temperatures,
according to local press reports.
In Karajukica Bunari on the Serbia-Montenegro border the
temperature fell to minus 34 Celsius (minus 29 Fahrenheit).
Meteorologists predicted the January 1954 record of minus 38.4
would fall in the coming days.
In Macedonia, where temperatures dipped below minus 25C, an
army captain was found frozen solid just 300 metres (yards) from
his border post in the Sar mountains on the Kosovo border.
An invalid Serb was found frozen in his home by neighbours.
Three died of cold in rural Croatia, four hypothermia fatalities
were reported in Bosnia and four in Albania.
Hospitals in central Bosnia were closed when antiquated
heating systems lost the battle against a minus 29C freeze and
ward temperatures fell to a bone-chilling minus 10 degrees.
"We are sending patients home and operation rooms are closed
except for the most urgent cases," hospital spokesman Marko
Radoja told Reuters in the Bosnian Serb capital Banja Luka,
which has recorded its lowest temperatures in 20 years.
Health authorities throughout the Balkans warned the elderly
and frail to stay inside and ration their heating fuel.
In Albania and western Kosovo, villagers in remote areas had
to drive off wolves and wild boar searching for food. The
Albanian daily Metropol said a 27-year-old mentally-ill man was
found devoured by wolves in the mountains near Elbasan, where
villages lie two metres (six feet) deep in snow.
Army bulldozers and snow ploughs were working non-stop to
keep a few key mountain passes open, while pregnant women,
invalids and food supplies were being ferried by helicopter.
Power restrictions were in effect in Kosovo, with overnight
temperatures of minus 22 degrees in some parts of the United
Nations-run province. The cash-strapped Kosovo Electricity
Corporation rationed power to four hours off, two hours on.
A state of emergency was in force in the Serbian town of
Sjenica, near the Montenegro border, which has been locked in
minus 30 degree frost for the past six days.
"We should have left for surrounding villages on Wednesday
with bulldozers and other machines, but no one was able to start
the bulldozers," Deputy Mayor Veroslav Karlicic said.
In Medvedja, southern Serbia, 46-year-old man Milosav Dinic
set out on foot to visit his father 6 km (4 miles) away and sat
down to rest. His stiffened corpse was found by the roadside.
starving wolves and road-clearing bulldozers froze solid as a
Siberian frost clutched much of the Balkans in its icy grip for
the second straight week, killing at least a dozen people.
Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and
Albania all registered record or near-record low temperatures,
according to local press reports.
In Karajukica Bunari on the Serbia-Montenegro border the
temperature fell to minus 34 Celsius (minus 29 Fahrenheit).
Meteorologists predicted the January 1954 record of minus 38.4
would fall in the coming days.
In Macedonia, where temperatures dipped below minus 25C, an
army captain was found frozen solid just 300 metres (yards) from
his border post in the Sar mountains on the Kosovo border.
An invalid Serb was found frozen in his home by neighbours.
Three died of cold in rural Croatia, four hypothermia fatalities
were reported in Bosnia and four in Albania.
Hospitals in central Bosnia were closed when antiquated
heating systems lost the battle against a minus 29C freeze and
ward temperatures fell to a bone-chilling minus 10 degrees.
"We are sending patients home and operation rooms are closed
except for the most urgent cases," hospital spokesman Marko
Radoja told Reuters in the Bosnian Serb capital Banja Luka,
which has recorded its lowest temperatures in 20 years.
Health authorities throughout the Balkans warned the elderly
and frail to stay inside and ration their heating fuel.
In Albania and western Kosovo, villagers in remote areas had
to drive off wolves and wild boar searching for food. The
Albanian daily Metropol said a 27-year-old mentally-ill man was
found devoured by wolves in the mountains near Elbasan, where
villages lie two metres (six feet) deep in snow.
Army bulldozers and snow ploughs were working non-stop to
keep a few key mountain passes open, while pregnant women,
invalids and food supplies were being ferried by helicopter.
Power restrictions were in effect in Kosovo, with overnight
temperatures of minus 22 degrees in some parts of the United
Nations-run province. The cash-strapped Kosovo Electricity
Corporation rationed power to four hours off, two hours on.
A state of emergency was in force in the Serbian town of
Sjenica, near the Montenegro border, which has been locked in
minus 30 degree frost for the past six days.
"We should have left for surrounding villages on Wednesday
with bulldozers and other machines, but no one was able to start
the bulldozers," Deputy Mayor Veroslav Karlicic said.
In Medvedja, southern Serbia, 46-year-old man Milosav Dinic
set out on foot to visit his father 6 km (4 miles) away and sat
down to rest. His stiffened corpse was found by the roadside.
