Emergency measures in parts of Serbia to battle snow, cold

A woman shelters from snowfall with an umbrella as she walks through the street on a cold winter day in Belgrade, Serbia, Monday, Jan. 9, 2017. With temperatures dropping to -30 degrees Celsius (-22 Fahrenheit) Serbian authorities have declared emergency measures in nine municipalities in central and southern parts of the country as fresh snow and extremely low temperatures have blocked roads and cut off villages. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) (The Associated Press)

A man with a dog walks through a snow covered park on a cold winter day in Belgrade, Serbia, Monday, Jan. 9, 2017. With temperatures dropping to -30 degrees Celsius (-22 Fahrenheit) Serbian authorities have declared emergency measures in nine municipalities in central and southern parts of the country as fresh snow and extremely low temperatures have blocked roads and cut off villages. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) (The Associated Press)

A woman sits on a bench at the government district after a heavy snowfall in Berlin, Monday, Jan. 9, 2017. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) (The Associated Press)

Serbian authorities have declared emergency measures in nine municipalities in central and southern parts of the country as fresh snow and extremely low temperatures that have blocked roads and cut off villages.

Emergency officials said Monday that more than 120 people and 70 vehicles have been evacuated overnight in the hardest-hit south of the country where 3-meter (10-feet) high snowdrifts have formed.

Heavy snow and polar temperatures diving to -30 degrees Celsius (-22 Fahrenheit) in some areas gripped parts of Europe last week, leading to more than a dozen deaths, grounding planes and causing traffic accidents.

Serbia's authorities have banned river traffic on the Danube and Sava rivers due to ice and wind. Authorities say the country's Velika Morava river is frozen for the first time in two decades.