Freak storm kills at least 20 in Macedonia

At least 20 people have died in flash flood in the Macedonian capital Skopje during a storm on Saturday evening, following torrential rain.

The death toll is expected to increase with several people still unaccounted for. Authorities said on Sunday that 60 people were treated at hospital, while police and army helicopters evacuated more than 1,000 people from the flood zone so far.

Torrential rains swept away a section of the ring road around Skopje before carrying vehicles hundreds of metres into nearby fields. Some were trapped in their cars and drowned, reports said.

The flash floods struck after heavy rain, strong winds and thunderstorms hit the city and its northern suburbs late Saturday.

“This is a catastrophe of unprecedented proportion,” Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Todorov said on Sunday.

Hundreds of homes and vehicles were destroyed by the floods, roads are still impassable and several areas are without electricity. Special police, army units and firefighters were sent to the worst-hit areas as well as the nearby villages of Stajkovci, Aracinovo and Smiljkovci.

 Three-and-a-half inches (93mm) of rain fell in Skopje in the storm - more than the average for the whole of August. The water level reached as high as five feet (1.5 metres) in some of the affected areas, reports said.

“Everything was a mess. Televisions, the fridge, the sofa, everything was floating... it was a nightmare,” said Baze Spriovski, a 43-year-old from Singelic in the outskirts of Skopje.

Many homes remain flooded and without electricity, while some are reported to have collapsed.

The Mayor of Skopje, Kove Trajanovski, said: “This is a disaster. We have never experienced such a thing.”

“There were thunderbolts with lightning almost every second. It was really horrific,” said Biljana Joneska, 62, in Skopje.

After a meeting of the National Crisis Management Centre, Health Minister Nikola Todorov said the death toll could soon rise. He said the government plans to declare a state of emergency shortly for two weeks in the most affected region.

"We can officially report 17 people dead and just while ago we have received the reports of three more deaths, so the total number will be probably 20 victims," Todorov told reporters, adding that many of the injured had fractures and contusions.

Local media reported that most victims drowned in their houses when torrents swept through the area. Meteorologists said more torrential rain and strong winds are expecting later Sunday.

The rain had stopped on Sunday morning and water levels were receding, but more rain was forecast for the evening in the capital of the small Balkan nation of 2 million inhabitants.

Further north in the Balkans, in Croatia, heavy winds caused disruptions on some roads, including the closure of the highway linking the capital Zagreb to southern coast for lorries and buses, local media said.