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Hundreds of lorries locked at Romanian-Bulgarian border as cold spell bites

Mon, Feb 08 2010 15:51 CET

byNick Iliev

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Hundreds of lorries locked at Romanian-Bulgarian border as cold spell bites

Photo: Bogdan Cristel

The extreme weather in the region has triggered enormous traffic congestion leaving hundreds of lorries stranded on either side of the Romanian-Bulgarian border between the frontier towns of Rousse and Giurgiu, Dnevnik daily reported on February 8 2010.

Snow drifts in parts of northeastern Bulgaria and southern Romania have reached 1.5-2 metres and police and army units have been handing out hot drinks to people stuck in their vehicles. For the moment, lorries exceeding 3.5 tonnes are not allowed to pass through, according to reports.

The snowfall lasted for more than 30 hours. In Rousse, and across the border in Giurgiu, snow cover exceeds 50cm. The Romanian authorities have declared "orange stage of emergency", just one level below an all out natural disaster.

Two motorways in Romania, DN41 and DN 5B, as well as 18 other primary roads, have been shut to traffic. About 16 municipalities in the country have been left without electricity while cars and trucks, as well as ambulances, have been stuck in the snow, Dnevnik said.

Public transport in Romania has been severely affected with delays of 400 minutes. The railways are operating but also with significant delays, up to 200 minutes, hence the Moscow-Sofia train was so late before arriving and subsequently derailing in Bulgaria. Fortunately,  there were no reported injuries among the 59 Bulgarian and Russian passengers.

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