Flash floods kill 4 in Macedonia, mud slides cut off villages, power outages reported

SKOPJE, Macedonia – Flash floods in Macedonia have killed at least four people, including three children, and injured a dozen others, and caused landslides, power outages and road damage in the northwest of the country, officials said Tuesday.

About 250 homes were damaged by the overnight high winds and torrential rain, Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Pesevski said. He said that one village, Shipkovica, “looks as if a huge tsunami has gone through it.”

Rescue teams are still looking for a missing girl in Shipkovica and a 61-year-old man, said Marjan Josifovski, police spokesman in the northern city of Tetovo, where several homes were evacuated.

It was the worst storm to hit the region in 35 years, according to Tetovo Mayor Teuta Arifi.

At least seven villages in the region lost road access because of mudslides, while the storm also caused a bridge collapse and the overnight closure of the road to neighbouring Kosovo.