Raging floods kill 30 across east Europe

Choking back sobs, 72-year-old pensioner Yevdokia Aksyonova surveyed what remained of her modest home a few bricks, a piece of iron bedpost, and a TV antenna poking out of the mud.

A 6.5ft wall of water engulfed her village of Nizhnaya Bakanskaya in southern Russia yesterday, forcing her to retreat to higher ground. When she returned, she found a huge, uprooted tree had crashed into her house, smashing it to bits.

"How can I live now," she said, huddling in a shack that somehow survived the flood with her only remaining possession her dog. "I have lost everything I have saved during my life."

The villages are reeling from the aftermath of the flooding that has washed away homes, roads and people.

Twenty-four people have been killed in Russia, and the number of missing is still being determined. Sixteen of the dead in Russia were found in the village of Shirokaya Balka. Rescue workers saved two people trapped under a collapsed house, officials said.

In the Czech Republic, a 19-year-old girl was missing after a raft carrying her and two other people overturned in a river near Rokycany, 55 miles southwest of Prague. Authorities were searching for a man whose car was swept away in a river in Kaplice, 105 miles south of Prague.

Yesterday, a 21-year-old Czech student was killed when a falling tree crushed a cottage, and about 2,000 people were evacuated from flooded homes in southern Bohemia.

Officials said today that a 51-year-old firefighter died of a heart attack during a rescue operation yesterday in Tabor, 60 miles south of Prague.

In south-west Romania, a 62-year-old man and an eight-year-old boy were killed when flood waters swept through their villages. In Bulgaria, state radio said two farmers were killed by lightning.

Austrian rescuers worked to reach villagers stranded on roofs. Forecasters in Austria warned more heavy rain was expected to hit this weekend.