World

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

An Orthodox Christian cathedral in winter landscape in Kiev, Ukraine, Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. . (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Rescue helicopters evacuated dozens of people from snow-blocked villages in Serbia and Bosnia and airlifted in emergency food and medicine as a severe cold spell kept eastern Europe in its icy grip.

The death toll from the cold rose to 79 on Wednesday and emergency crews worked overtime as temperatures sank to minus 32.5 C in some areas.

Parts of the Black Sea froze near the Romanian coastline and the rare show fell on Croatian islands in the Adriatic Sea. In Bulgaria, 16 towns recorded their lowest temperatures since records started 100 years ago.

In central Serbia, choppers pulled out 12 people, including nine who went to a funeral but then could not get back over icy, snow-choked roads. Two more people froze to death in the snow and two others are missing, bringing that nation's death toll to five.

"The situation is dramatic, the snow is up to five metres high in some areas, you can only see rooftops," said Dr. Milorad Dramacanin, who participated in the helicopter evacuations.

One of the evacuees was an elderly woman who had fallen into a coma. She survived after being airlifted to a hospital.

Two helicopters were also used Wednesday to rescue people and supply remote villages in northern Bosnia.

"We are trying to get through to several small villages, with each just a few elderly residents," said Bosnian rescue official Milimir Doder. "All together some 200-300 people are cut off. We are supplying them for the second day with food and medication."

Some villages have had no electricity for two days and crews were working around-the-clock trying to fix power lines.