site.btaUPDATED Day of Mourning in Tsarevo After Floods Leave 3 People Dead, Unification Day Celebrations Cancelled around Bulgaria

Tsarevo Municipality declared Wednesday a day of mourning for the victims of the Tuesday floods. Three people died due to the floods, according to the Interior Ministry's press centre. The water caused severe damage to property and infrastructure.

Two people are missing, Interior Ministry's Burgas Regional Directorate Senior Commissioner Emil Pavlov said earlier in the day. "We can confirm two men dead. We are still searching for two women," he added. "An alert was received about a vehicle on a bridge, which fell into the river and was washed into the sea. It seems that there were two women in the vehicle, a mother and a daughter - we are searching for them at the moment," Pavlov explained and clarified that the search involved a border patrol boat and a drone.

Justice Minister Atanas Slavov said that one of the victims is the President of the Tsarevo Regional Court, Maria Moskova.

The Burgas Fire Safety and Civil Protection Regional Directorate received more than 250 calls for flooded houses, hotels and infrastructure, the Chief Directorate Fire Safety and Civil Protection reported on its website on Wednesday morning.

Cars and caravans were swept to sea by the floodwater, and others were submerged under water. The amount of rainfall is over 300 l/sq.m. Sirens were activated in Tsarevo Municipality to alert the population.

Most of the rivers have come out of their riverbeds. Bridges at Ahtopol, Varvara and between the new and old town of Tsarevo have been destroyed.

A pontoon bridge will be built to replace a destroyed bridge on the Tsarevo - Varvara road. The bridge segments will be sent from Sliven in south-central Bulgaria and will be carried on four trucks with the first due to arrive at Varvara around 16 hrs.

Over 130 people were evacuated.

In Burgas, celebrations on the occasion of the Unification Day have been cancelled. At 10:30 am, Bulgarian clergy will offer a prayer for health and salvation for all those struggling to cope with the disaster.

Celebrations were cancelled also in Plovdiv, Sliven, Kotel, Primorsko Municipality and Kameno Municipality.

Environment and Water Minister Julian Popov said Wednesday that Bulgarian infrastructure is not adequate to the Bulgarian climate and added that he expects more intense and more frequent rainfall in the future.