Critical hours for flooded Prague as death toll rises

Danica Kirka, Prague

As the Vltava reached what was expected to be its flood peak at mid afternoon, authorities said the next five hours would be a critical test for the thousands of sandbags piled to hold back the swirling brown flood waters.

"It is the beginning of the worst moment," said Vaclav Baca, a spokesman for the river authority. "All of the flood barriers are at their maximum level."

Heavy rains have also caused severe flooding in Nepal, Bangladesh, and eastern India, where the death toll for the past two months rose to 876 when two people in Nepal were killed by landslides, the Interior Ministry said yesterday.

China has also been hit by regular summer storms and flooding that have killed more than 800 people, including 13 who died after a landslide on Monday in Yunnan, according to China Central Television. Sixteen people were missing.

Although the rain stopped in the Czech Republic and sunshine periodically broke through, the Vltava River still rose, producing Prague's worst flooding since 1890. Heavy wind gusts threatened to create a surge that could push waters through the barricades.

Officials in neighbouring Slovakia declared a state of emergency yesterday in the capital Bratislava, where the Danube River was rising dangerously.

Five more deaths were reported yesterday in Germany, pushing the toll there to seven. They included drowning deaths in the Dresden area and a victim who died from a fall during a helicopter rescue attempt.

Raging waters cut off some towns in the German state of Saxony and left parts of Dresden flooded, including the famed Semper-Oper opera house and the Zwinger palace, home to a renowned collection of Renaissance paintings. Volunteers filled sandbags in the city centre to try to keep the Elbe River from causing further damage.

Germany's agriculture minister said there were "catastrophic harvest situations" in seven German states as the weather made harvesting impossible.

Hundreds of thousands of Czechs have fled the onslaught of the Vltava, searching for higher ground as near-record rains soaked the continent for a week-and-a-half. Ten Czechs have died. About 70,000 inhabitants of the capital's one million people left their homes.

Most of Europe's flooding casualties were in Russia, where the death toll is now 59 mostly Russian tourists vacationing on the Black Sea swept away by swiftly moving water last week.