TIRANA (AFP) Dec 02, 2005 Thousands of hectares (acres) of land were flooded and hundreds of houses damaged in Albania on Friday after heavy rains hit the country, an interior ministry spokesman said.
The floods blocked roads and bridges in various regions, brought down electricity pylons and inundated transformers, leaving large areas without power, Altin Ndroqi said.
Police and troops were dispatched to the southern regions of Vlora and Fier to evacuate people stranded by rising water.
At least one person went missing on Friday, presumably swept away by the river Fan in Burrel, some 70 kilometers (40 miles) north of Tirana, following a road accident caused by bad weather.
