A young girl has been pulled alive from a house hours after it was hit by an avalanche that killed at least nine people in southern Kosovo.
An official said that the 5-year-old was found buried under 10 meters of snow after officers heard her voice and a mobile phone ringing.
Both of the child's parents were killed in the avalanche.
Rescue efforts continued at the remote mountain village near the border with Macedonia and Albania.
More heavy snow fell on the Balkans and in Italy, while the Danube River, already closed to shipping for hundreds of kilometers because of thick ice, froze over in Bulgaria for the first time in 27 years.
Compiled from agency reports
An official said that the 5-year-old was found buried under 10 meters of snow after officers heard her voice and a mobile phone ringing.
Both of the child's parents were killed in the avalanche.
Rescue efforts continued at the remote mountain village near the border with Macedonia and Albania.
More heavy snow fell on the Balkans and in Italy, while the Danube River, already closed to shipping for hundreds of kilometers because of thick ice, froze over in Bulgaria for the first time in 27 years.
Compiled from agency reports