MIA earlier had reported that six people were missing in the disaster, but so far no updates have been provided.
Advertisement
Skopje Mayor Koche Trayanovski said that the storm felt like “a water bomb” had been dropped on the city.
He said that the deadly deluge created hazardous rainfall accumulations within only 20 minutes.”It was like a water bomb has fallen”, he said.
“It was like a water bomb has fallen!” he said.
More than 1,000 people had been evacuated as police and army units in helicopters search for several missing following the storm.
Police spokeswoman Natalija Spirova Kordikj said heavy rain, strong winds and thunderstorms hit Skopje and its suburbs late Saturday, but didn’t specify how the victims died.
In the spring of 2014, the Balkans region was hit by its worst floods in more than a century, which affected 1.6 million people and left 47 people dead in Serbia and Bosnia.
Skopje’s city council held an emergency session and chose to provide financial help to victims’ families, giving 180,000 denars (3,000 euros) to each. Authorities said they will open shelters for people from affected areas.
Abandoned vehicles are pictured on a motorway after flooding caused by an overnight storm near the village of Stajkovci, just east of Skopje, Macedonia, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016.
After a meeting of the National Crisis Management Centre, Health Minister Nikola Todorov said the death toll could soon rise. Care also should be taken with the consumption of food, such as vegetables from gardens that may be contaminated by floodwater, authorities said.
The Red Cross of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has launched an appeal to fund more emergency supplies including baby food, nappies and cleaning kits as people begin the hard task of clearing flood water and debris from their homes. The bridge connecting one island to the coast was closed and the highway linking the capital Zagreb to the southern coast was at times shut to lorries and large buses because of the winds.
Advertisement
Disruptions created by the bad weather have clogged the roads, creating traffic backups among cars carrying tourists toward Croatia’s coastal resorts along the Adriatic Sea.
