BELGRADE, Serbia, May 19 (UPI) -- Officials in Bosnia and Serbia, citing the threat of landslides and the deaths of 35 people in recent flooding, have called for international help and aid.
Rescue helicopters from the European Union, Russia and the United States are evacuating victims, and Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said more help -- particularly food, clothing and clean water -- was needed.
About a million people live in the most severely-affected area, and several days of rain prompted the worst flooding since modern record-keeping began. The flooding caused evacuations, about 2,000 landslides in Bosnia, and submerged rail lines. It also prompted fears that land mines -- about 120,000 mines are still in place after Bosnia's 1992-1995 war -- may be dislodged or lose their identification of location.
Serbia is faced with rising river levels, and residents, in riverside cities including Belgrade, spent the weekend piling sandbags. Parts of the coal-fired Tesla power plant and a nearby coal mine in Obrenovac are underwater, and damage to the mine alone has been estimated at over 100 million Euros ($137.7 million).
