SNOWDRIFTS BLOCK ROAD CONNECTING NORTHERN & SOUTHERN CROATIA

( Editorial: --> 6395 ) PLITVICE LAKES, Jan 22 (Hina) - Snow continues to fall and worsen the already poor state of traffic through the regions of Lika, the Plitvice Lakes, Prijeboj and Korenica, 100 kilometres south of Zagreb. Snow drifts on some sections of the road connecting northern and southern Croatia are more than four metres high. Roads Prijeboj-Korenica and Korenica-Gradina-Bjelopolje have been blocked since Tuesday afternoon. According to Mile Cancar, head of the municipality of Korenica, the Croatian army is assisting the employees of Croatian Roads in removing the snowdrifts. Twenty passengers who had been trapped on the Prijeboj-Korenica road were treated at the Korenica hospital. A man and a child suffered frostbite, without serious consequences, at the Borje Motel, which accommodates more than 150 passengers since Tuesday. Police and Croatian Roads employees extricated passengers out of 50 cars blocked in the snow. Police reported that 16 people from 14 vehicles refused to abandon the vehicles and seek accommodation at nearby shelters. The bad weather continues to worsen with snow blizzards, especially around Plitvice Lakes. (hina) ha mm 221402 MET jan 98