SOFIA, Feb 4 (AFP) - Snow storms and high winds brought chaos to eastern regions of Bulgaria and Romania, officials said Friday, prompting authorities to call a state of emergency in at least six Bulgarian regions.
Storms closed the main Bulgarian Black Sea ports of Varna and Burgas, with no flights or trains in and out of Varna. The city's buses also stopped running.
The picture was similar in Romania to the north, especially around the Black Sea port of Constanta, where schools were shut and electricity and telephone lines cut.
Trains were running up to five hours late, hundreds of villages were cut off in both countries and dozens of vehicles stranded.
A state of emergency was declared in the eastern Bulgarian regions of Varna, Dobrich, Razgrad, Silistra, Yambol and Ivaylovgrad, while Bourgas region in the south-east, and the central cities of Veliko Tarnovo, Haskovo, Stara Zagora and Plovdiv were also hard hit.
A 69-year-old woman was found dead early Friday in southern Bulgaria's Chepelare region, BTA news agency reported. The woman was said to have fallen and frozen to death in the snow.
02/04/2005 14:58 GMT - AFP