Two Migrant Women Dead from Cold in Bulgaria

Two female migrants found dead in a mountainous rural region of Bulgaria died due to freezing conditions, authorities said Sunday, as asylum seekers continue to try to reach the EU despite harsh winter weather.

The women were part of a group of 19 migrants, including 11 children, found Saturday by border police near the southeastern town of Malko Tarnovo. Their nationality was still unclear.

"Two women have died -- one younger and another middle-aged. Our border guards made every effort to help them, carrying them in their arms to try to warm them up, but it happened because of the cold," Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova announced Sunday told private bTV television.

The area was under harsh winter conditions with high winds, some 30 centimeters (12 inches) of snow and freezing temperatures.

A ministry statement said one of the victims was a teenager -- aged between 14 and 16 -- and the other was between 30 and 40 years old.

All of the children, aged between 4 and 16, were taken to hospital with frostbite and two adults were in critical condition, a hospital spokesman told Focus news agency.

This is the second report in Bulgaria this winter of migrants succumbing to cold, after the frozen bodies of two men were found in a mountainous area at Bulgaria's border with Serbia in January.

As refugees continued to flow from Greece through the Balkans on their way to western Europe, aid workers have sounded alarms over inadequate shelter from the current freezing temperatures and snowy conditions, particularly for children.

In January, almost 62,200 migrants and refugees entered Europe through Greece, most of them from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, the International Organization for Migration said. Close to a third of them were unaccompanied minors.