SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — A dam in southern Bulgaria collapsed after heavy rain on Monday, flooding a village and killing at least three elderly men, authorities said.
A 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) flood wave swept some 700 houses in the village of Bisser, near the Greek border, after the dam on the Ivanovo reservoir collapsed, the civil defense chief Nikolai Nikolov said.
The country's civil defense warned that two other bigger dams in the region, Ivaylovgrad and Studena, are on the brink of overflowing and urged people there to be ready for an evacuation.
Authorities declared a state of emergency in much of southern Bulgaria, which is experiencing heavy rain.
The mayor of Bisser, Zlatka Valkova, said that the bodies of three elderly men have been recovered from the raging waters.
Landslides derailed the engine of an Istanbul-bound international train near the border town of Svilengrad, causing no injuries but leaving at least a dozen foreigners stuck for hours, district governor Irena Uzunova said.
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