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."