Girl alive after avalanche kills 9
Source: Agencies |
February 13, 2012, Monday
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A five-year-old girl has been found alive in the rubble of a house flattened by a massive avalanche that killed at least nine people, including her parents, in a remote mountain village in southern Kosovo.
Colonel Shemsi Syla, a spokesman for the Kosovo Security Force, said the girl was discovered in the ruins - buried under 10 meters of snow - when officers heard her voice and the ringing of a cell phone.
Osman Qerreti, an emergency official at the site, told The Associated Press that at least nine people died in the avalanche that hit the village of Restelica near Kosovo's border with Macedonia and Albania on Saturday, destroying seven houses of which only two were inhabited. The rescuers were looking for one more person.
The girl, identified as Ansera Reka, was recovering in hospital in the nearby town of Prizren where doctors said her life was not in danger. She had been buried for more than 10 hours.
NATO peacekeepers, deployed in Kosovo to end the armed conflict between Serbs and Kosovo Albanians in 1999, had been called in to help local authorities in the rescue operation, but were unable to land a helicopter in the blizzard.
Rescuers - mostly local villagers using shovels - initially dug out the bodies of a married couple and their 17-year-old son. Six more bodies were discovered during the overnight and yesterday's excavation.
"No bigger tragedy has ever struck this region," said local district official Behar Ramadani. "Two brothers with their wives and children have been killed."
The cold snap in Europe, which began in late January, has killed hundreds of people - most of them homeless.
Heavy snow has been blanketing the Balkans for more than two weeks, with Restelica and roads in the region blocked for several days.
Colonel Shemsi Syla, a spokesman for the Kosovo Security Force, said the girl was discovered in the ruins - buried under 10 meters of snow - when officers heard her voice and the ringing of a cell phone.
Osman Qerreti, an emergency official at the site, told The Associated Press that at least nine people died in the avalanche that hit the village of Restelica near Kosovo's border with Macedonia and Albania on Saturday, destroying seven houses of which only two were inhabited. The rescuers were looking for one more person.
The girl, identified as Ansera Reka, was recovering in hospital in the nearby town of Prizren where doctors said her life was not in danger. She had been buried for more than 10 hours.
NATO peacekeepers, deployed in Kosovo to end the armed conflict between Serbs and Kosovo Albanians in 1999, had been called in to help local authorities in the rescue operation, but were unable to land a helicopter in the blizzard.
Rescuers - mostly local villagers using shovels - initially dug out the bodies of a married couple and their 17-year-old son. Six more bodies were discovered during the overnight and yesterday's excavation.
"No bigger tragedy has ever struck this region," said local district official Behar Ramadani. "Two brothers with their wives and children have been killed."
The cold snap in Europe, which began in late January, has killed hundreds of people - most of them homeless.
Heavy snow has been blanketing the Balkans for more than two weeks, with Restelica and roads in the region blocked for several days.
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