Prague watched and waited last night as the surging River Vltava threatened to breach flood defences in what locals are calling the worst flooding in the city for 500 years.
The flooding that has claimed nearly 100 lives so far spread across central Europe spread further yesterday in southern and eastern Germany and Austria.
At least 10 per cent of the Czech capital was submerged yesterday evening, according to city officials, and in some places flood waters were four metres deep.
"We're fighting a force of nature," said Mr Igor Nemec, the mayor of Prague, as he watched special forces assembling sandbag barriers. "Whether the water will spill over the barriers or not remains to be seen."
Mr Vaclav Baca, spokesman for the Prague river authority said: "Now is the start of the worst moment. All of the flood barriers are at their maximum level."
City officials said up to 70,000 people living in the low-lying neighbourhoods in central Prague had been successfully evacuated.However in widespread confusion yesterday afternoon, some people evacuated on Tuesday were allowed to return to their homes.
The sound of sirens filled the narrow city streets as police patrolled on foot and in small boats, guarding empty homes against would-be looters.
In Prague's zoo, keepers had to shoot a 35-year-old elephant named Kadir, after the animal became trapped in his flooded enclosure.
Mr Frank Haughton, owner of a number of Irish pubs in the city, said: "Today was the worst, but the wild predictions that the old town square would be under a metre of water haven't come true."
Dresden in Germany was in chaos yesterday as water levels from the swollen River Elbe threatened to rise by another metre by this morning. More than 2,000 special forces from all over Germany evacuated parts of the city.
At least eight people are dead, four are missing and more than 95 have been injured from the flooding in the eastern state of Saxony alone. A 76-year-old woman being winched up to a helicopter slipped from the harness and plunged 20 metres to her death into the roaring flood waters.
The German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schröder, visited the town of Grimma in Saxony yesterday. "This is not just a matter for Saxony, this is a matter for Germany," said Mr Schröder told reporters.
He said the government may bring forward €100 billion of scheduled investment under the "solidarity pact" to rebuild the former East Germany. The government has already promised nearly €400 million in credit aid to farmers, business people and ordinary homeowners who face ruin once the waters recede.
Ms Renate Künast, the German agriculture minister, said the flooding had "devastated" the harvest in seven German states, with crops and grain sodden and impossible to harvest.
Authorities in neighbouring Saxony-Anhalt warned of a possible environmental disaster as flood waters approached a local chemical factory. In Vienna in Austria, the Danube burst its banks in some areas, causing isolated flooding, though water levels began to sink in other affected areas.
One mayor in a flooded Austrian village told local radio: "We're sitting here in a bathtub without a plug."
Róisín Ingle adds: The embassy of the Czech Republic in Ireland has requested international assistance in collecting equipment to ease the flooding that has affected much of the country.
The embassy also expressed its "heartfelt gratitude" to Irish people who offered assistance to victims of flooding.
