Serbia

Two people have died, several are missing and 7,618 have been evacuated during the floods in Serbia in the past two days and the battle against the rising waters still rages.

Serbia battles floods, more than 7,600 evacuated

BELGRADE -- More than 7,618 people have been evacuated in Serbia in the past two days as the country battles severe flooding, the Interior Ministry has announced.

BELGRADE - Serbia's Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said on Friday the number of victims of the floods in the country was significant and called on the people to help save those threatened by the rising waters.

BELGRADE - The U.S. Embassy in Belgrade expressed deep sympathy with thousands of Serbian citizens hit by floods and released that it has set aside USD 100,000 worth of assistance for the purpose.

SABAC - The Sabac headquarters for emergencies has proposed that the road between Sabac and Sremska Mitrovica be closed because the Sava water level near that industrial city in western Serbia has risen by 80 percent in one day.

Preparations for protecting the city from the flood are under way, because the Sava is expected to reach a historic high in the next 48 hours.

VELIKI CRLJENI - The fire in the thermal power plant Kolubara within the Nikola Tesla thermal power complex has been extinguished in flood-hit Obrenovac and nobody was injured, Serbian Minister of Energy and Mining Aleksandar Antic said.

BELGRADE - The House of Culture as the temporary palace in which the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was declared in 1918, opened on Friday before numerous audience.

OBRENOVAC - Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic on Friday visited the Belgrade municipality of Obrenovac, the hardest hit by the floods in Serbia.

"The situation is catastrophic and the entire town will have to be evacuated," Vucic said after inspecting the situation from a boat. Obrenovac was flooded at dawn after embankments caved in.

135,000 homes without electricity

BELGRADE -- Severe weather conditions, torrential rain and floods left 135,000 homes across Serbia without electricity, the power company EPS has announced.

The most difficult situation is in Lazarevac, Obrenovac, Valjevo, Paraćin and Smederevska Palanka.

SABAC - Minister of Energy Aleksandar Antic visited Sabac, western Serbia, on Thursday, the city where the river Sava will reach the highest water level, and announced that the crisis headquarters would create a plan to protect the city from the flood.