Floods continue to wreak havoc across Europe

RESCUE workers airlifted residents from a half-submerged riverside district of the Swiss capital yesterday as large swathes of central and southern Europe remained underwater and the death toll from flooding rose to 42.

Hardest hit was Romania with 31 victims - many of whom drowned as torrents of water rushed into their homes. Austria, Bulgaria, Germany and Switzerland reported a total of 11 dead, but numbers were expected to climb as more bodies of those missing are recovered.

Across the Alps, military helicopters ferried in supplies to valleys cut off by flooding and evacuated stranded tourists and even cows isolated in mountain pastures by the rising waters.