Some municipalities in Serbia are cut off and unreachable due to the bitter cold, with temperatures in some areas dropping below minus 20 degrees Celsius, and the cold has claimed its first victims.

Serbian Emergency Situation Sector head Predrag Maric said a search was in progress for two elderly people on Mt Suvobor, presumed to have died in big snow drifts, but that it was advancing with difficulty.

Since Christmas according to the Julian calendar, Jan. 7, to date, 50 people have been rescued from snow drifts, Maric said, appealing to the denizens of remote villages not to leave their homes, and to ask emergency headquarters and fire fighters for assistance in obtaining food and medication.

Two thirds of the municipality of Brus are under snow; roads to isolated villages and hamlets may be cleared in two days, the Municipal Emergency Headquarters said. The base also said there were round-the-clock efforts to break through the drifts, up to four or five meters high in some areas, with loading shovels, bulldozers, and with the assistance of fire fighting units.

Snow banks in Bosilegrad, up to three meters high, have cut off another 10 to 15 mountain hamlets. According to estimates, the roads leading to them should be cleared by the end of the week.

The priority in Nova Varos, which has been in a state of emergency for almost 20 days, is distributing medication and food to ill and elderly citizens.

In the Moravica District, there are no classes in eight schools located in high or mountainous areas in Cacak, Ivanjica and Gornji Milanovac, because of high snow deposits on local roads, BETA learned at the district School Administration.

The production of coal at the Kolubara Mine is down 15 percent since Jan. 24 due to snow and frost, the website of Serbia's biggest coal mine said on Jan. 30. The post specified that, instead of 89,000 tons transported to thermal power plants daily, the mine currently produced around 76,000 tons of lignite every day.