Bulgarian flash floods kill 12

VARNA, Bulgaria: Flash floods in Bulgaria have killed at least 12 people including two children, with others missing after torrential rains lashed the east of the country, authorities said Friday.
The worst hit was the Asparuhovo neighborhood of the Black Sea city of Varna, where at least 10 people including the two children perished, Interior Minister Tsvetlin Yovchev said.
Two more victims were found in the nearby northeastern town of Dobrich, where 150 people were evacuated. The normally picturesque hillside Asparuhovo was submerged after torrential rain pounded the region on Thursday evening, clogging garbage-filled drainage canals and turning the steep streets into raging torrents.
Dozens of smashed and upturned cars and uprooted trees littered Asparuhovo’s mud-splattered roads, making the area almost impassable as authorities feared more bodies might be found, an AFP photographer said.
“Thank God I managed to run away, otherwise I would have drowned,” said resident Branimir, 38. “Everyone panicked and started to run.” The man said his next-door neighbors were still missing after their house was swept away.
“Neither I nor my grandfather have seen anything like this before. Everyone is shaking for fear that a new shock wave might come,” Branimir said.
Several rickety houses were totally destroyed by the water and authorities were unable to say whether their owners had survived.
Electricity in the area was cut off and authorities said it would not be restored for the time being due to safety concerns. Tap water was declared unsafe to drink.
Navy divers searched a canal linking Lake Varna to the Black Sea, where all the floodwater drained away, dragging with it cars, furniture, garbage and trees. The body of one victim, a man, was recovered from a submerged car.
The army and prisoners have joined in efforts to help evacuate people, clean up piles of garbage from the streets and drain the flooded buildings, including Varna military medical hospital.
Strong winds meanwhile prompted authorities to shut the port of Varna, Bulgaria’s largest.
Shocked Asparuhovo residents, home to some 25,000 people, likened the disaster to the set of a horror movie.
“I have never seen anything like this before, nor heard about a disaster like that from my father,” an elderly man said, shaking his white-haired head in disbelief.
“We had to climb on the garage roof to save ourselves,” a woman in her 50s said.