SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Flooding from a new lake created by a landslide in central Bosnia has shut down one of the country's main highways.

Earlier this week, a major landslide from huge piles of mine waste from an open pit coal mine had blocked a river near the central town of Kakanj, creating the lake.

The lake then overflowed Saturday morning following heavy rain overnight. That forced the closure of a busy highway connecting the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo with the central town of Zenica.

Fahrudin Solak, a Civil Protection official, said emergency crews have redirected drivers to alternative roads and were struggling to defuse the lake's flooding threat by channeling water into drainage ducts.

On Friday, authorities evacuated more than 150 people from two villages in the direct path of the landslide.