BUCHAREST - At least six people died in floods which hit southeastern Romania on Thursday damaging hundreds of homes and disrupting traffic on the Black Sea shore towards Bulgaria , state agency Rompres reported.

Torrential rains have swept across the Balkans for most of the summer, killing dozens of people in Romania and its neighbour Bulgaria and causing hundreds of millions of euros in damage to houses, road bridges and crops.

Rompres said the victims drowned in the swollen waters close to the Black Sea towns of Costinesti and Tuzla .

Private television Realitatea TV showed images from Costinesti where a national guard unit was rescuing children and elderly people from their collapsing homes.

Local police said a main road was closed linking Romania 's biggest Black Sea port of Constanta with the Bulgarian port of Varna .

Meteorologists say more rain was expected over the next few days.

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE