Fears focus on lakes after floods

Helicopters ferried food to isolated Alpine villages yesterday as residents and rescue workers feared swollen lakes may overflow and bring more havoc to flood-ravaged Switzerland.

In Romania, one of the countries worst hit by the downpours that lashed central Europe earlier this week, the death toll from flooding rose by six to 31, with another three people missing, including a four-year-old girl.

Lakes and rivers burst their banks from Berne to Bucharest, cutting roads, power and communications to hundreds of communities and causing damage estimated at well over $1 billion in Switzerland alone.

In the Swiss capital, police finished evacuating over 1,000 residents from the oldest part of town, fearing centuries-old buildings could be swept away by a fresh surge in the river Aare once barrages from the upstream lake Thun were cleared of wood.

"We can cope with lots of water coming from Thun. But if it is aggravated by rain, which is in the forecast today, we will have problems," said Franz Maerki, Berne police spokesman.

Firefighters pumped streets and cellars, but water remained 1.5-metre deep in one area, he added.

"Police will not let people return to the quarter because they fear the water may rise again," said John Hopper, a British restaurant owner in the city. "They are saying we will not be allowed back for a week."

In the central city of Lucerne, sandbags protected shops and homes and residents watched anxiously as the river Reuss rushed perilously close beneath the city's covered 14th century wooden bridge - a national landmark.

"Right now the water level is falling, but we just do not know what is going to happen next," civil protection official Rene Bieri said.

Eight people have died and thousands were evacuated from their homes in Switzerland and Austria, where the toll rose to four yesterday when searchers found the body of an 81-year-old man missing since his car tumbled into a swollen river.