Floods claim 12th victim and force mass evacuations

Central Europe’s worst floods in over a decade claimed a 12th victim as torrents of muddy water surged down rivers through the Czech Republic and into Germany, flooding villages and forcing evacuations.

The huge volumes of water from heavy spring rains coming down the Danube and Elbe river systems also sparked mass mobilisations in Austria and threatened future inundations as far away as Budapest.

Eastern Germany, where vast areas are under water, braced for worse to come after the Elbe rose above eight metres (26ft), six metres higher than usual.

About 40,000 firefighters, 5,000 troops, including hundreds of French and Dutch soldiers, and thousands of volunteers nationwide have struggled to prevent major disaster.

In the city of Halle, where Elbe tributary the Saale reached its highest level in 400 years and started soaking through dykes, authorities told 30,000 people to evacuate.

The floods in central Europe, which have turned villages into islands, were the worst since 2002 when scores of people were killed. Homes, businesses and crops have been destroyed, road and rail links severed and vast areas left without power and drinking water.

In the Czech Republic, where eight people have perished, some villages can only be reached by boat.

The floods, which earlier killed two people in Austria and one in Switzerland, claimed their first victim in Slovakia when a body was found in the Danube close to the Gabcikovo dam in the country’s south.

In Germany where, ironically, the skies were clear after weeks of frequent rain, defences were strengthened around the city centre of Dresden, a world heritage site that was badly hit by 2002 floods.

In southern Germany, where the Danube has burst its banks, the Bavarian rural district of Deggendorf was cut off, and 6,000 people had been evacuated.

In the Czech Republic, Prague has escaped the worst, but the floods have hit Usti nad Labem, an industrial city 30km from the German border, where some 3,700 had to flee.

The Elbe was also threatening several chemical plants along its banks.