The Danube hit record high levels in the Balkans today, sending soldiers and disaster workers scrambling to evacuate people and stem flooding along its banks.
Under a state of emergency, workers filled sandbags through the night to shore up dikes in the port city of Lom, around 230 kilometres north of Sofia, where the river swamped a hotel and city administration buildings.
People were seen carrying furniture and other belongings from the buildings as the waters, fed by melting snow in central Europe and heavy rains in the Balkans, continued rising.
Upriver in the port of Vidin, 80 soldiers arrived to help shore up berms as the Danube rose to 9.42 metres, near or higher than the not officially recorded all-time high set in 1942, when waters inundated the then unprotected city centre.
Officials said they would move 70,000 people from the area if it appeared the river would overcome dikes built to withstand water a metre higher than current levels.
In Romania, hundreds of people fled their homes in villages in the west of the country early today, private television Antena 3 reported.
Yesterday, rescue crews in Serbia staged evacuations and shored up barriers in the towns of Titel, Zabalj and Zrenjanin, which lie along the Tisa river.
In Belgrade, the Sava and Danube were nearing record highs, but authorities expected their flood defences to hold as the water peaked today or tomorrow.