At least 13 people have been killed in the Jablanica area due to flash floods and landslides.

Rescue teams dug through rubble and searched for those still missing on Saturday after the worst flash floods and landslides in years hit parts of Bosnia, killing at least 13 people and injuring dozens more.

The spokesperson for the Government of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, Darko Juka, said on Saturday morning that 13 people died in the Jablanica area due to the collapse of a hill, landslides, and floods in the canton.

“On Friday, we reported a figure of 16, but after reviewing the data and assessing the situation on the ground, the number has been corrected to 13,” Juka said at a media conference. The Jablanica area is 70km (43.5 miles) southwest of the capital Sarajevo.

Earlier on Saturday, N1 TV had reported that 21 people died and dozens were missing.

A spokesperson for the Mountain Rescue Service, whose teams are involved in search, said some villages in the area were still inaccessible and “we don’t know what we will find there”.

Heavy rain overnight halted rescue efforts, Bosnian media reported, before they resumed on Saturday.

Al Jazeera’s Arduana Pribinja, reporting from the village of Donja Jablanica, said people in the area were in “deep shock”, adding the floods and landslides had caught many by surprise.

“People here told me that everything happened too fast, and they didn’t have time to evacuate,” she said.

In Donja Jablanica, many houses were still under the rubble.

Alka Glusic, 74, lost a brother and his three immediate family members. She had stayed in another house with her sister. “That [brother’s] house is gone now. There is no one there,” Glusic told the Reuters news agency.

Al Jazeera’s Pribinja said public anger is now shifting towards the government, as some suspect “human factors” contributed to the tragedy.

“There is quarry here … and it seems that the sudden rainfall stripped the stone and rubble that triggered the landslide,” she said.

Bosnia’s election commission decided to postpone local elections this weekend in municipalities affected by floods, but to carry on with voting elsewhere.

The Bosnian Football Association (NFSBIH) has postponed all matches across the country after the floods.

Human-caused climate change increases the intensity of rainfall because warm air holds more moisture.

This summer, the Balkans were also hit by long-lasting record temperatures, causing a drought. Scientists said the dried-out land has hampered the absorption of floodwaters.

Flooding was also reported in Croatia and Montenegro this week but caused less damage and no fatalities.