Torrential rain and heavy floods have ravaged Slovenia, killing at least three people, cutting off roads and bridges, surging into buildings and forcing evacuations.
Slovenia’s environmental agency raised the weather alert to the highest level after a month’s amount of rain fell within 24 hours in northern, north-western and central parts of the country.
As rain continued to fall on Friday, authorities warned of more floods in other areas because of swiftly swelling rivers.
Slovenian police told the official STA news agency that three people have died since bad weather started late on Thursday evening: a Slovenian woman died in the central town of Kamnik, and two Dutch nationals in a mountainous area near the city of Kranj.
“The death in Kamnik could have been caused by flooding, while the deaths in the mountains could have been caused by a lightning strike,” said police official Maja Adlesic Ciperle.
“The circumstances of the deaths are still being established.”
Army soldiers helped emergency personnel in the recovery effort.
“I urge all those who don’t have an urgent errand to run to stay at home, and not to drive anywhere,” defence minister Marjan Sarec said.
Photos in local media showed submerged cars, cracked roads and entire villages flooded.
Rescuers could be seen carrying out children from a blocked nursery while helicopters lifted people who climbed on to the roofs of their flooded homes.
President Natasa Pirc Musar expressed condolences to the families of the victims, urging citizens to “stay connected and support and help each other in these challenging times, and take care of older people and other vulnerable individuals who need our help and support”.
Prime minister Robert Golob cut short his summer holiday because of the floods.
“We can already say that this a record flood,” he said at a news conference after cutting short his vacation because of the floods. Golob said the floods could be the biggest since Slovenia became independent in 1991.
“The scale is catastrophic. We are asking for all the help we can get,” he said. “I am calling on everyone to stay at home unless it’s absolutely necessary to go out.”
The Alpine nation was hit by several severe storms earlier in the summer that blew off roofs, downed thousands of trees and killed one person in Slovenia and four others elsewhere in the region.
Experts say extreme weather conditions are partly fuelled by climate change.
Parts of Europe saw record heat and battled wildfires during the summer.
Authorities closed a section of a main motorway for traffic on Friday and sought to direct transit traffic to neighbouring Italy or Austria.
The state motorway agency DARS said “all trapped drivers and their passengers should wait for the emergency teams and follow their instructions”.
Floods overnight on Thursday to Friday also blocked roads around Kamnik, where authorities urged people to stay in their homes and closed nurseries for the day.
The official STA news agency reported evacuations in several parts of the country, including camping sites.
About 16,000 households were left without electricity, STA said.
Bad weather also disrupted rail services, and the country’s main NLB bank said its offices in flood-hit areas will remain closed.
Landslides were reported in the north-west Gorenjska region.
Regional civil protection commander Klemen Smid said the “entire Gorenjska is under water”.
More than 100 buildings, including a sports hall, were flooded in the central area around the town of Skofja Loka where roads were blocked and landslides threatened to cause further damage, STA said.
Authorities also urged people in the western town of Idrija not to leave their homes unless absolutely necessary.
The Administration for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief recorded more than 1,000 weather-related incidents within 12 hours across the country, STA said.
Throughout the night, firefighters were busy pumping water from flooded buildings, rescuing flooded vehicles, removing debris from under bridges and securing landslides, the administration said.
