[size=55:3u0i32xc]Sofia echo

Elderly man dies in eastern Bulgaria's cold snap

A 73-year-old man who had been snowbound in a hut along with fellow loggers and a group of children died of hypothermia, television station bTV reported on October 18 2011 amid a surge of freezing weather that gripped eastern Bulgaria.

After emergency number 112 was called, it took six hours for rescue teams to be able to reach the man, who along with the rest of the group was trapped in the hut near the village of Lisovo in the Svilengrad area.

On the way to hospital in Svilengrad, the elderly man died of hypothermia, the report said.

The snow, rain and strong wind that has hit the eastern part of Bulgaria in recent days has left a reported 81 communities without electricity.

All passes through the Balkan Range were closed to traffic, except for Vitinya and Byala/Nessebur and workers were trying to clean them of the snow, Bulgarian news agency BTA said.

Several communities in Rouen municipality in the south-eastern Bourgas Region were in a state of emergency on October 18.