In pictures: The catastrophic flooding inundates the Balkans
The worst floods in a century have inundated huge swaths of the Balkans, with muddy waters from the Sava River submerging houses, churches, mosques and roads in Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia. In Bosnia, hit particularly hard, officials are comparing the devastation to the carnage during the country’s 1992-95 war that killed at least 100,000 people and left millions homeless. "The only difference from the war is that less people have died," says Foreign Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija. "The country is devastated … This is something that no war in the history of this country" ever accomplished.
After a flood and evacuation, much of the Serbian town of Obrenovac is under water. ‘It came like a big wave,’ says one resident of the floodwaters that inundated the town of 15,000. ‘It happened in one hour, two metres of water. Nobody saw it coming.’Darko Vojinovic/The Associated Press
People ride a boat during heavy floods on a main street in Bosanski Samac May 19, 2014.Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters
Men sit on a car porch during heavy floods in Bosanski Samac May 19, 2014. Bosnia said on Monday that more than a quarter of its 4 million people had been affected by the worst floods to hit the Balkans in living memory, comparing the "terrifying" destruction to that of the country's 1992-95 war. The extent of the devastation became apparent in Serbia too, as waters receded in some of the worst-hit areas to reveal homes toppled or submerged in mud, trees felled and villages strewn with the rotting corpses of livestock.Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters
A house is tilted by floods in the village of Krupanj, Serbia.Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters
A man climbs on the roof of a house to feed pigs they rescued during heavy floods in the village of Vojskova, May 19, 2014. Communities in Serbia and Bosnia battled to protect towns and power plants on Monday from rising flood waters and landslides that have devastated swathes of both countries and killed dozens of people.Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters