Belgrade/Sofia, Jan 8, SPA -- Gas shortages triggered by the Russia-Ukraine row over payments have left tens of thousands of families inSerbia and Bulgaria without the ability to heat their homes at a timeof freezing cold, reported dpa. While most Serbian plants have switched or were in the process ofswitching from natural gas to oil, some - as in the cities of NoviSad and Pancevo, servicing some 120,000 people - have shut down asgas supplies were exhausted, reports said. In Pancevo, the heart of Serbia's petrochemical industry just 15kilometres east of Belgrade, an institution caring for more than 200elderly people was in a critical situation, the daily Blic said. Russia closed the valves on pipelines running through Ukraine,accusing Kiev of stealing the gas intended for users beyond itsborder. The move left the entire Balkans without gas, with the situationaggravated by a spate of freezing weather. Serbia was hitparticularly hard as it was virtually without any reserves. After having to halt much of the gas-dependent industry, Serbs arenervously casting an eye on the electricity grid which has beenoverburdened as a result of the crisis. Despite Belgrade authorities' repeated warnings that a furtherincrease in electricity consumption could bring down the system, mostpeople have no alternative to electric heaters that remain a staplehousehold item supplementing Serbia's often unreliable centralheating systems. More than a third of Bulgaria's 7 million people are similarlydependant on remote heating systems and were suffering in the cold asheating plants were trying to switching from gas to oil. A rush for electric heaters was reported in Bulgaria, along withincreased concern for the electric power grid. Bulgaria has had sufficient gas reserves for a week, but onThursday ordered austerity measures, calling on the industry toshrink consumption from the normal winter usage of 12 million cubicmetres to just 4.5 million. Also cut off from the Russian-Ukraine gas supply in the Balkanswere also Romania, Greece, Turkey, Macedonia, Bosnia, and Croatia aswell as Albania and the former Serbian province Kosovo which normallyhave supply problems in winter.--SPA www.spa.gov.sa/623953