Floods claim two more victims as torrential rains hit Central Europe

One person drowned in southwestern Poland and thousands were evacuated across the border into the Czech Republic after heavy rains battered central Europe on Sunday, causing flooding in parts of the region.

A firefighter who was fighting floods in Lower Austria has also died, Austrian Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler reported on the social platform X on Sunday, while authorities have declared the province around Vienna a disaster area.

A bridge collapsed in the historic Polish town of Glucholazy, near the Czech border. Local media reported that a house was swept away and a bridge collapsed in the mountain town of Stronie Slaskie, where a local dam burst, the Polish National Weather Service said.

Rivers in Poland and Romania burst their banks, killing four people on Saturday, after days of torrential rain in a low-pressure area called Boris.

Parts of the Czech Republic and Poland suffered their worst flooding in nearly three decades as cities were forced to evacuate thousands of people, leaving a quarter of a million Czech homes without power.

Czech police say they are searching for three people who were in a car that fell into the Staric River on Saturday near Lipova-lazne, a village about 235 km (146 miles) east of Prague. The village, along with the neighbouring town of Jesenik, was among the worst hit.

Reuters footage showed floodwaters rushing through both towns, damaging homes and carrying debris.

“We don’t know what will happen next,” said Jesenik resident Mirek Burianek. “The Internet network is not working, phones are not working… We are waiting for who will come (to help).”

Police and firefighters used a helicopter to evacuate stranded people in the district. In total, more than 10,000 people were evacuated in the country, the head of the fire department told Czech television.

In Poland, one person died in the Klodzko region, which Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the worst-hit area in the country and 1,600 people have been evacuated.

“The situation is very dramatic,” Tusk told reporters on Sunday after a meeting in the town of Klodzko, which was partially flooded as the local river rose to 665cm on Sunday morning, well above the alert level of 240.

This broke the record set by severe floods in 1997, which partially destroyed the city and claimed 56 lives in Poland.

Officials in Glucholazy in Poland’s Nysa province ordered an evacuation early Sunday morning after the local river burst its banks, cutting off power to the town. Firefighters and soldiers had been working to protect the town’s infrastructure since Saturday, but that failed to prevent the bridge from collapsing.

Local police have announced plans to rescue people trapped in flooded homes in the Nysa region by helicopter.

Residents on the Czech border also reported that the situation was worse than previous floods.

“What you see here is worse than in 1997, and I don’t know what will happen because my house is under water and I don’t know if I will ever return there,” said Pavel Bily, a resident of Lipova Lazne.

The fire department in the region reported that 1,900 people had been evacuated on Sunday morning, while many roads were impassable.

In the worst-hit areas, more than 100 mm of rain fell overnight and about 450 mm since Wednesday evening, the Czech weather institute said.

More rain is expected on Sunday and Monday.

In Budapest, authorities raised their forecast that the Danube will rise by more than 8.5 metres in the second half of this week, nearly beating the record of 8.91 metres set in 2013. Rain continued in Hungary, Slovakia and Austria.

“According to forecasts, one of the biggest floods in recent years is approaching Budapest, but we are prepared to deal with it,” said Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony.

In Romania, authorities said the rains were less severe than on Saturday, when floods killed four people and damaged 5,000 homes. Towns and villages in seven counties in eastern Romania were hit and the country’s emergency services said it was still searching for two missing people.