Snow, flooding in Austria destroy homes, cuts off villages

Parts of Austria were dealing with masses of snow, the threat of avalanches and flooding by swelling rivers and lakes on Monday.

A mudslide in Bad Gastein, south of Salzburg, destroyed two homes overnight, burying two women, the Austrian news agency APA reported. Firefighters rescued one of them quickly, the other one only after several hours. Both were injured and taken to the hospital.

Later in the day, another mudslide covered a home in Bad Kleinkirchheim. Authorities with rescue dogs were searching for a missing 80-year-old resident, public broadcast station ORF reported.

In Gurktal, in the Carinthia region, some 70 firefighters had to evacuate the residents of 15 buildings because of the swelling Gurk river.

Several train lines were interrupted and about 1,700 homes were without electricity for several hours.

Elsewhere in southern Austria, several villages were cut off because of heavy snowfall.

Schools stayed closed and helicopters scouted the nearby mountains for possible avalanches.