Russian cargo planes carrying food, generators and rescue boats landed in Serbia on Sunday as part of a relief effort after the worst floods in over a century killed more than 20 people in the Balkan country and neighbouring Bosnia, according to the Associated Press.
River levels were still rising in the Serbian capital Belgrade and west towards the Bosnian border, threatening power stations where volunteers joined the army and emergency services in building sandbag barriers, the AP reported.
Tens of thousands of homes were without electricity in Serbia and around 150,000 in Bosnia, where whole swathes of the northeast of the country were under water, according to the AP.
In the worst-hit Serbian town of Obrenovac, waters receded overnight, easing rescue efforts. Authorities say there are fatalities after huge parts of the town, about 18 miles southwest of Belgrade, were submerged under water, the AP reported.
Three people were confirmed dead in Serbia by Friday, following days of the heaviest rainfall since records began almost 120 years ago, according to the AP.
In Bosnia, the death toll reached 19 on Saturday, with nine bodies recovered from the northeastern town of Doboj after what the regional police chief described as a "tsunami" of water 3-4 metres high, the AP reported.
The cities of Orasje and Brcko in northeast Bosnia, where the Sava River forms the natural border with Croatia, were in danger of being overwhelmed, according to the AP. Officials in Brcko ordered six villages to be evacuated.
Brcko Mayor Anto Domic said that unless the Bosnian Army is able to reinforce from the air, the city will be flooded completely, the AP reported. He called for the Defense Ministry to use helicopters to lower steel barriers that could be backed by sandbags to contain the water.
Rescue teams and humanitarian aid, water pumps and generators have arrived from Russia and several European Union member states, including Britain, Germany and Austria, as well as Serbia and Bosnia's fellow former ex-Yugoslav republic Montenegro, Croatia and Slovenia, according to the AP.
Authorities say the economic impact of the floods will be huge, devastating the agricultural sector that is vital to both the Serbian and Bosnian economies, the AP reported.
