CRNA TRAVA -- A strong storm described as "tornado-like" on Wednesday hit the village of Mlačište near the municipality of Crna Trava in southern Serbia.
It heavily damaged some 20 homes and other facilities and ripped large beech trees from their roots, the locals reported.
Crna Trava Emergency Situations Sector chief Mile Mladenović told Beta that the storm affected a very small area, completely destroying one house, and blowing off roofs from 20 others - and "covering the structures in broken tree trunks."
According to reports, the area that the storm affected was 500 meters wide and 2 kilometers long.
"Nobody knows what happened during those several minutes. People were in a terrible panic. Some say darkness descended and they heard a dull rumbling sound, others said they saw a vortex that looked like a tornado. This is truly a mystery to all of us," Mladenović said.
Once this was over, a hailstorm hit the village, followed by snowfall.
"There is 20 centimeters of snow now in Mlačiste and Bainci (villages)," the news agency quoted Mladenović as saying.
Elsewhere in Serbia and the region, a massive cloud system has caused record rainfall and flooding that killed five people so far, cut off traffic to several towns, and forced the authorities to evacuate more than 600 people from their homes, while some 100,000 households were left without electricity.
To deal with the situation, the Serbian government will on Thursday declare a state of emergency in the entire territory of the country.
