6 Killed in Central Europe Flood

Many people are either dead or missing across central Europe as floods continue to devastate parts of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. At least six people have been killed due to the torrential rain, which put much of central Europe on red alert onMonday. Five people were killed at the weekend in the Czech Republic, where the flooding was the worst in a decade, while in Austria one clean-up worker was killed in a mud-slide near Salzburg. Waters from three swollen rivers gushed into the old town of Passau in southeast Germany, one of the worst-hitcities, pushing water levels to the highest they have been in 70 years. Much of the city was inaccessible on foot and the electricity supply was shut down as a precaution. Rescuers were using boats to evacuate residents from flooded parts of the city. With water from the Danube, Inn and Ilz rivers relentlessly pouring into the city, markers set in 1954, when the city suffered its worst flooding in living memory, have disappeared beneath the rising water. The German army said it has sent 1,760 soldiers to help local authorities and volunteers reinforce flood defenses particularly in the south and east of the country. Chancellor Angela Merkel planned to visit flood-hit areas on Tuesday, spokesman Steffan Seibert said. How her government respondsto the emergency could influence the outcome of a nationwide election in September. “It’s perfectly normal that the leader of the government would go to the region and see what is happening for herself,” Seibert said. Shipping was stopped on partsof the Danube and Rhine rivers in Germany, both important arteries for shippinggrains, coals and other commodities, because of the high waters. Authorities in the Czech Republic worked on Monday to erect further protective metal barriers along the Vltava river, which also flows through the capital Prague. Volunteers piled up sandbags to keep the swollen river fromoverwhelming the city’s historic centre after floods forced factories to close and drove thousands from their homes. Rescuers evacuated about 2,700 people across the western half of the country where the government declared a state of emergencyin most regions. Some had to leave their homes in the southern neighbourhoods of Prague while further evacuations havebeen under way in the northern Czech Republic, awaiting a flood wave later Monday. The last time central Europe saw similar floods was in 2002, when 17 people were killed in the Czech Republic, and damage estimated at$26bn was inflicted. The risk on Monday was that the flood danger could follow the course of the Danube riverdownstream to other European countries along its route. In Hungary, where the capitalBudapest is built on the banksof the Danube, state media quoted Gyorgy Bakondi, head of the National Disaster Authority, as saying that 400 people were working on flooddefences. He said water levels in the river could reach or even exceed the height seen in the record flooding in 2002.