Record floods engulfed the historic eastern German city of Dresden yesterday, swamping its Baroque architecture and driving thousands from their homes.
A tide of debris-laden brown water submerged other towns on the River Elbe, forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands while volunteers battled to save the centre of Dresden, the capital of Saxony, 200 km south of Berlin.
Floods have killed at least 89 people in Germany, Russia, Austria and the Czech Republic over the last week, after torrential rains sent a huge surge of water through river systems. At least 10 died in Saxony.
Regions along the flooded rivers face a multi-billion-euro clean-up. In the Czech capital Prague, some residents returned home as waters retreated there, but flooding continued elsewhere in the country and damage estimates were rising rapidly.
Officials said some towns and villages were almost completely devastated. The town of Zalezlice, about 30 km north of Prague, saw 90 of its 120 buildings damaged. Thirty had been levelled.
In Slovakia, the River Danube began to recede from its highest level in 50 years in the capital Bratislava and soldiers began to remove sandbag barriers erected to hold the mighty river back from the city's medieval centre.
Officials said Bratislava still remained in a state of emergency, but reassured citizens that the risk of the Danube breaking through the hastily built dykes was diminishing.
NATO said its disaster relief arm was coordinating assistance for the Czech Republic and had offered its support to five other central European countries, including Germany.
In Germany, the surging waters continued to rise but were expected to peak overnight. Officials feared more of the architectural gems of Dresden, destroyed by British and US bombers in 1945 and only recently restored, would be submerged.
The Elbe rose from a normal summer level of about two metres to 9.25 metres yesterday, well surpassing the 8.77 metre record of 1845. The last four bridges open in Dresden were closed.
"The flood waters are still rising and at the moment it's impossible to say exactly how far it will go," said Dresden Mayor Ingolf Rossberg. He said experts were predicting the Elbe would peak at about 9.6 metres today.
Rossberg estimated the damage would cost far more than 100 million euros for Dresden alone, where some 30,000 people were evacuated. It is just one of scores of towns in Germany's former communist east ravaged by the deluge.
German media have described it as the flood of the century, although other floods in Germany's recent history have cost many more lives.
Europe's biggest insurer Allianz said the losses would be much higher than those caused by the flooding of the River Oder in east Germany five years ago, when soldiers and aid workers spent three weeks shoring up water-logged barriers.
German officials said European Commission President Romano Prodi would visit Berlin tomorrow for talks on the flood damage with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder as well as leaders from stricken Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
Thousands of emergency workers and volunteers battled for the fourth day, piling up sandbags to protect the city centre, which boasts famous architectural landmarks like the Zwinger palace, the Semper opera and the cathedral.
The fire brigade gave up its fight to stop flooding in the theatre plaza early yesterday as water bubbled up from overflowing sewers through manhole covers on the square. The basement of the Semper opera filled with 2.5 metres of water.
"The orchestra pit and the concert hall itself are still safe," said Adi Luick, director of the Semper opera, but added that performances had been cancelled for the next two months.
European Commission President Prodi was in Prague to inspect the aftermath with President Vaclav Havel. The European Union, which the Czechs hope to join in 2004, has already promised some two billion crowns ($63 million) in aid.
As the swollen waters began to recede in Bratislava, they reached Hungary, where water levels broke all-time records on the upper section of the Danube, Europe's largest inland shipping route.
The flooding was expected to reach the capital Budapest over the weekend, although Environment Minister Maria Korodi said the floods posed no serious danger to the city where defences can withstand water levels of up to 10 metres.
The German government has announced hundreds of millions of euros in emergency relief to flood victims and yesterday said it was offering a package of tax breaks to ease the clean-up.
In Dresden, where more than 100,000 people were without power, streetlights were turned off in the centre overnight, giving the town an eerie atmosphere. Blue lights and sirens from Red Cross vans pierced the darkness.
Older residents who had lived through the bombing raids in World War Two said Dresden seemed to be cursed.
"It was such an effort to rebuilt the Zwinger from the ruins," said Sonja Beyer, 72, who lived through the air raids and helped clear the rubble of the palace after the war.
"It hurts so much that all this is endangered by the water. It's the art treasures that give Dresden its flair. They are the heart of the city, what makes us famous worldwide."