Despite weather clearing, the situation in parts of Bulgaria after the massive snowfalls remained critical on Thursday.

A total of 11 municipalities, chiefly from the Varna, Burgas and Russe regions, have declared a state of emergency with roads snowed under.

Hundreds of villages throughout the country remain without electricity, dozens are without water, with communications also affected by phone lines failure in some cases.

Traffic in the country remains slow, with hundreds of cars stranded, while trains are generally travelling with big delays.

Roads are still largely impassable in the Pleven, Gabrovo, Russe and Razgrad regions in northern Bulgaria, where strong winds are hampering snow-cleaning activities.

The situation in Varna and Burgas on the Black Sea also difficult, local authorities said, although the port of Varna has been opened to all vessels and the city airport is expected to resume normal operation on Friday.

Close to 2000 vehicles equipped with snow-cleaning equipment have been working throughout the country, their mission complicated by the heavy traffic after the New Year's holidays.

"I'll be very happy if we can deal with the situation without the loss of human lives. The situation in the Danube plain - the winds reach 20 m/s and we can clean the roads fast enough," the head of Bulgaria's fund for road infrastructure Vesseling Georgiev said.

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