Floods inflict grievous blow on frail Balkan economies

MAGLAJ Bosnia/BELGRADE (Reuters) - When the waters receded, hundreds of employees at the paper and pulp factory in the Bosnian town of Maglaj turned up for work. Armed with shovels, they began to clear the mud that caked the Natron Hayat mill, where machinery had sat for days submerged under three metres of water.

The factory was wrecked, and barely a house in the town around it was left untouched by the worst floods to hit the Balkans in living memory.