Snow blocks more than 1000 people on Serbian road

More than 1,000 people were rescued by the army and emergency services on Saturday after being stranded in snow on a road linking Serbia and Hungary for some 15 hours. More than 200 vehicles were caught by the weather and trapped for several hours from Friday evening in the region of Feketic, some 120 kilometres (74 miles) north of Belgrade. The government ordered "all concerned services, army, police and firefighters to deploy all necessary means to rescue" those trapped, a statement said. The severe weather conditions meant that another 1,000 people throughout Serbia had to be rescued, a government statement said. The northern Vojvodina province has, since Thursday evening, been hit by winds reaching speeds of more than 100 kilometres (60 miles) per hour. In Vrsac, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) northeast of Belgrade, winds were gusting at a speed of at 168 kilometres (104 miles) per hour, the state-run RTS television reported, causing snowdrifts. On Friday, an army helicopter helped rescue services to evacuate some 100 people blocked in their vehicles on a road linking Belgrade and Zrenjanin, some 70 kilometres (43 miles) northeast of the Serbian capital. The authorities banned trucks from neighbouring countries from entering. River traffic on the Danube was also banned. The strong winds were expected to continue over the weekend.