© APView of a flooded house in southern Gjirokastra city, 180 kilometers (110 miles) south of captial Tirana, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015. Heavy rain and snow have swollen rivers, flooding thousands of hectares (acres), hundreds of homes and blocking many roads in southern Albania, which borders Greece
Flash floods caused by heavy rains have hit northwestern Greece and southern Albania, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of villagers Sunday and destroying a famous 18th-century stone bridge.
No casualties were reported in either country.
Heavy rains began Saturday in the northwestern Greek province of Epirus, prompting authorities to evacuate four villages and several isolated farmhouses close to the city of Arta.
By Sunday, at least four rivers had overflowed their banks, three of them near Arta and another closer to Greece's border with Albania. The Plaka Bridge near Arta also collapsed.
© Yorgos Karahalis/APHuge waves hit a promenade at Floisvos suburb, west of Athens, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015.
Comment: See also these reports from the same region in January: 14 whales and 16 turtles wash up dead on Baja California Sur coast
554 dead seabirds and 4 sea lions found on beaches in Baja California, Mexico