German Chancellor Angela Merkel has pledged €100m in emergency aid for flood-ravaged areas.

Germany has dispatched thousands of soldiers to help cities and towns cope with flooding from the rain-soaked Danube and other southern rivers, a day after the Bavarian city of Passau saw its worst flooding since 1501.

Floodwaters continued to threaten Czech towns and villages in the north and south-east, preventing thousands of people from returning to their homes.

Czech officials have declared a state of emergency in seven flood-hit regions while rivers continued to rise in neighbouring European countries today, forcing evacuations in some areas.

The Czech cabinet has declared a state of emergency in seven regions, allowing easier handling of the flood crisis caused by rising rivers.

RIVERS, swollen by rain and melting snow, forced hundreds of residents in the Czech Republic and Germany to flee their homes yesterday.

Prague braced for flooding today and 10,000 people were evacuated from their homes in a south-eastern town as rivers, swollen by rain and melting snow, rose to dangerous levels.

Authorities have evacuated more than 1,000 people from their homes in eastern Germany as heavy rain and melting snow caused rivers to flood.

German authorities today issued a flood alert for Dresden, where melting snow was swelling the Elbe River three years after its waters devastated the city’s cultural treasures.

The death toll from a winter freeze in Moscow reached 239 today as large parts of Europe were caught up in bitter conditions.

Rivers swollen by rain and melting snow flooded roads and prompted evacuations in the Czech Republic today amid flood alerts throughout the country.

Parts of Germany hit hard by last month’s Europe-wide flooding were back under water today after torrential rainstorms deluged the east of the country.

Authorities in eastern Germany cleaning up from disastrous flooding have been presented with deadlier hazards – Second World War ammunition left behind by the receding waters.

THE swollen Elbe River peaked early yesterday in the eastern German city of Magdeburg, which was spared a major evacuation effort as dykes held back the floods that have left a trail of devastation upstream.

The swollen Elbe River peaked early today in the eastern German city of Magdeburg, which was spared a major evacuation effort as dikes held back the floods that have left a trail of devastation upstream.

HELICOPTERS ferried sandbags to plug the crumbling dikes of flooding rivers in eastern Germany yesterday, as workers scrambled to protect a huge chemical complex and towns such as Wittenberg, once the home of religious reformer Martin Luther.

MORE than 30,000 people were evacuated from historic Dresden yesterday as floodwaters in the Elbe River surged past an all-time high, closing in on cultural landmarks already waterlogged by an earlier wave of high water.

More than 30,000 people were evacuated from historic Dresden today as floodwaters in the Elbe River surged past an all-time high, closing in on cultural landmarks already waterlogged by an earlier wave of high water.

Thousands of people were evacuated from the baroque city of Dresden in eastern Germany today as floods on the Elbe River reached record levels.

German authorities evacuated thousands of people near Dresden's historic centre today as floodwaters in the Elbe River reached an all-time high, also spilling into a square close to some of the city's cultural landmarks.

Danica Kirka, Prague