Snowstorm cuts power to tens of thousands in Bosnia

SARAJEVO — Parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina were cut off and more than 170,000 people were left without electricity on Tuesday due to a snowstorm gripping the region.

"Despite efforts and continuous work to repair the faults, the electricity supply situation worsened. Currently, 127,000 metering points are without power," distributor Elektroprivreda BiH said.

Elektrokrajina, which covers the municipalities of the Serb entity in Bosnia, Republika Srpska, also announced that around 50,000 of its users are without power.

"All available field teams have been deployed and have been working since the early morning hours to repair the faults," the company stated.

At the same time, in the western part of Bosnia, a state of emergency was declared after severe weather blocked all entry and exit points to the municipality of Drvar, cutting off its 17,000 residents.

"The situation is extremely difficult. The snow keeps falling. People are stranded in the snow," Jasna Pecanac, the president of the Drvar Municipal Council, told local media.

Snowdrifts in some villages around Drvar are up to two metres high, and the heavy blizzard is making clearing efforts even more difficult.

"We are requesting assistance for snow clearing. All available machinery is already in the field," said Pecanac.

Due to heavy snowfall, classes have been cancelled in elementary schools in Banja Luka, the second-largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the administrative centre of Republika Srpska.

A day earlier, classes were also postponed in around 70 elementary and high schools in the Una-Sana Canton in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Since Tuesday, heavy, wet snow has also been falling in neighbouring Serbia, causing widespread traffic disruptions and problems with the power grid.

The snow is heaviest in the western parts of the country, where a red weather alert is in effect.

In the hilly and mountainous areas of this region, the severe snowstorm has caused numerous faults in the electricity distribution network.

The Serbian official Hydrometeorological Institute has issued a warning that heavy snowfall will continue.