Death toll rises as flooding hits Central and Eastern Europe

At least seven people have died and more are missing after widespread flooding in Central and Eastern Europe.

Thousands of people across Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania have been forced out of their homes due to record rainfall in the region since Thursday.

The floods had claimed five lives in Romania and one each in Austria and Poland by Sunday, but there are fears the death toll could rise.

In the Czech Republic, four people are missing after being swept away by high waters, police said.

The situation appears to be worst in north-eastern regions of the Czech Republic, including the Jeseniky mountains near the Polish border.

In the city of Opava, up to 10,000 people out of a population of around 56,000 have been asked to leave their homes for higher ground.

“There’s no reason to wait,” Mayor Tomáš Navrátil told Czech public radio. He said that the situation was worse than during the last devastating floods in 1997, known as the “flood of the century”.

“We have to focus on saving lives,” Prime Minister Petr Fiala told Czech public television on Sunday. His government was set to meet on Monday to assess the damages.

The Donaukanal channel overflows its banks in central Vienna, Austria. / Credit: AP

The worst “is not behind us yet,” the prime minister warned as the flooding made its way through the country.

Thousands of others also were evacuated in the towns of Krnov, which was almost completely flooded, and Cesky Tesin.

The Oder River that flows to Poland was reaching extreme levels in the city of Ostrava and in Bohumin, prompting mass evacuations.

In Austria, a firefighter died after “slipping on stairs” while pumping out a flooded basement in the town of Tulln, the head of the fire department of Lower Austria Dietmar Fahrafellner told reporters on Sunday.

Authorities declared the entire state of Lower Austria a disaster zone, while emergency personnel have so far evacuated 1,100 houses there.

“We are experiencing difficult and dramatic hours in Lower Austria. For many people in Lower Austria these will probably be the most difficult hours of their lives,” said Johanna Mikl-Leitner, the governor of Lower Austria.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who was on his way to the disaster zone in Lower Austria, said that 2,400 soldiers were ready to support the relief effort.

Romanian authorities said on Sunday that another person had died in the hard-hit eastern county of Galati after four were reported dead there a day before, following unprecedented rain.

In Poland, one person was presumed dead in floods in the southwest, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Sunday.

Mr Tusk said he would declare “a state of natural disaster”.