Heavy Snowfall in Romania, Bulgaria, and Moldova Leaves 1 Person Dead

A man shovels snow, as he tries to clear his car in town of Isperih, Northeast Bulgaria, Sunday, Nov. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Bulgarian News Agency)
A man shovels snow, as he tries to clear his car in town of Isperih, Northeast Bulgaria, Sunday, Nov. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Bulgarian News Agency)
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Heavy Snowfall in Romania, Bulgaria, and Moldova Leaves 1 Person Dead

A man shovels snow, as he tries to clear his car in town of Isperih, Northeast Bulgaria, Sunday, Nov. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Bulgarian News Agency)
A man shovels snow, as he tries to clear his car in town of Isperih, Northeast Bulgaria, Sunday, Nov. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Bulgarian News Agency)

Heavy snowfall and strong blizzards in Romania and Moldova on Sunday left one person dead and hundreds of localities without electricity, as well as forcing the closure of some national roads, authorities said.

A 40-year-old man in Moldova died on Sunday after the vehicle he was in skidded off the road and crashed into a tree, Moldova’s national police said, adding that six road accidents had been reported by about midday.

“We repeatedly appeal to drivers not to hit the road with unequipped cars and to drive at low speed,” Moldovan police said in a statement posted on Telegram, and warned against driving “without an urgent need.”

In Romania, red weather warnings were issued in the eastern counties of Constanta, Tulcea, Galati, and Braila where winds were forecast to reach as high as 100 kph (62 mph), the National Meteorological Administration said.

Romania's Minister of Energy Sebastian Burduja told The Associated Press on Sunday that more than 400 localities had suffered electrical outages.

Emergency authorities said that both national and local roads in the four counties were closed on Sunday. Officials in the counties of Constanta and Braila reported that at least 69 localities had been left without electricity but that teams had been deployed to fix the outages. Other, less severe weather warnings were also issued to other parts of Romania.

In neighboring Bulgaria, powerful winter storms also brought heavy snowfall and prompted the government to declare a state of emergency on Sunday in large parts of the country. More than 1,000 settlements, mostly in Bulgaria's northeast, were left without electricity on Sunday, according to Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov.

Two people in Bulgaria had died in traffic accidents and 36 were left injured during the stormy weather in the last 24 hours. Strong winds also closed roads, caused traffic accidents and travel delays, and downed trees and power lines, Denkov said.



Indonesia Volcano Belches Ash Tower as Highest Alert Issued

Lava rises from Mount Etna, Italy March 20, 2025. REUTERS/Etna Walk/Marco Restivo
Lava rises from Mount Etna, Italy March 20, 2025. REUTERS/Etna Walk/Marco Restivo
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Indonesia Volcano Belches Ash Tower as Highest Alert Issued

Lava rises from Mount Etna, Italy March 20, 2025. REUTERS/Etna Walk/Marco Restivo
Lava rises from Mount Etna, Italy March 20, 2025. REUTERS/Etna Walk/Marco Restivo

A volcano in eastern Indonesia erupted late Thursday, sending a dark ash tower eight kilometers (nearly five miles) into the sky as officials raised the alert level to its highest, AFP reported.

Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki, a 1,703-meter (5,587-foot) twin-peaked volcano on the tourist island of Flores, erupted for 11 minutes and nine seconds, authorities said.

"The ash column was observed grey to black with thick intensity," Indonesia's volcanology agency said in a statement about the eruption that began at 22:56 pm (1456 GMT).

There were no immediate reports of damages to nearby villages, but the agency warned residents of the potential for volcanic mudflow due to heavy rainfall.

The long eruption prompted the country's geological agency to raise the volcano's alert level to the highest of the four-tiered system.

Authorities imposed an exclusion zone between seven and eight kilometers around the volcano, the agency added.

In November, Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki erupted multiple times, killing nine people, cancelling scores of international flights to the tourist island of Bali and forcing thousands to evacuate.

Laki-Laki, which means "man" in Indonesian, is twinned with a calmer volcano named after the Indonesian word for "woman".

Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation, experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific "Ring of Fire."