Violent storm hits Bulgaria’s Lovech, leaves 11 villages without electricity

In the latest blow from heavy weather in Bulgaria this summer, a violent storm broke over the town of Lovech on July 10, bringing a barrage of rain and hail and leaving 11 villages without power.

Local media reports said that streets were flooded and first reports said that there was no information yet on people injured.

Bulgaria’s weather office said that storms also raged east of Botevgrad, in the areas of the Pass of the Republic and Pleven, while storm winds also hit Bulgaria’s Danubian city of Rousse.

Weather forecasters said that further storms were expected in central and northern Bulgaria before midnight on July 10.

The maelstrom that struck Lovech came two days after a severe hailstorm struck Bulgaria’s capital city Sofia, causing damaged estimated to run into many millions of leva, and a few weeks after heavy weather caused deadly floods in Varna’s Asparouhovo area, Dobrich and Veliko Turnovo.

Following a meeting of the crisis staff, an emergency was declared in Lovech, mayor Mincho Kazandzhiev said.

In places in the town, the water reached more than a metre, disrupting traffic and damaging cars. Trees had been brought down and some buildings in the lower-lying parts of the town had been flooded, local authorities said.

A Europa League first-qualifying round football match between the Litex and Veris teams was postponed after the pitch was inundated.

Counting in the summer rain and hail storms that have hit Varna, Dobrich, Veliko Turnovo and Sofia in recent weeks, damage already runs into several million leva.