Heavy snowfall is causing complications across the entire country, but several regions in Bulgaria have been affected severely and have declared a state of emergency, Bulgarian media deported on February 8 2010.

Municipalities in northern and northeastern Bulgaria are reeling from what they describe as "arctic temperatures, heavy snowfall and massive snow drifts in places". Rousse, Razgrad, Dulovo, Samuil, Isperih, Tutrakan and Sitovo are among the worst affected regions.

Sofia Airport's website has also reported delays with flights from Sofia to Frankfurt, Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam, Munich and Madrid all postponed. Flights inbound from Athens, Istanbul and Tel Aviv landed with a short delay. One flight from Cyprus, supposed to land at 10.35am on February 8, was cancelled altogether.

Several serious traffic accidents occurred around the country, most of them, fortunately, without fatalities. An express train from Moscow to Sofia was derailed near Kurilo. Authorities believe that this was because of the snow. A total of 59 Russian and Bulgarian passengers were on board, and all of them were safe, the Bulgarian State Rail (BDZ) said in a statement. Bulgarian National Television (BNT) said that Transport Minister Alexander Tsvetkov was at the scene half an hour after the incident. A fleet of buses has been mobilised to ferry the passengers to Sofia, BNT said.

In Sofia, two trams were derailed on Konstantin Velichkov Boulevard. Fortunately, there were no casualties. Meanwhile, a bus overturned on the Sliven to Yambol road, again with no serious injuries.

A vehicle lost control and fell in a river near the village of Popovitsa, killing its driver Deyan Stoyanov, the Focus news agency said.

Currently, in the municipality of Dulovo, the road linking Silistra and Shumen is open but authorities have said that given the weather conditions and the forecast for February 9, schools will remain closed tomorrow.

The municipality of Samuil will remain in a state of emergency until February 10, as reports indicate that the situation in the villages of Bogomoltsi, Zhelyazkovets and Krivitsa is "critical". Snow-clearing machines have been deployed to the scene to free the roads and facilitate the food supply operation for local residents, Focus said.

Snowfall will continue across most of Bulgaria throughout February 8. According to the Bulgarian Meteorological Service website, with the advance of a front from the northwest later in the afternoon, temperatures will plummet further and in the southwest of Bulgaria and some regions on the Black Sea coast where it is now raining, the rain will also turn to snow.