Danube threatens

The Danube threatened to overcome soaked anti-flood defences in Serbia's capital and wash through towns across south-eastern Europe yesterday after heavy rains helped push it to its highest levels in a century.

The river, fed by rain and melting snow in central Europe, rose to a 111-year record high on Saturday, displacing hundreds of people across the Balkans and putting thousands more at risk.

A bottleneck at Serbia's narrow Djerdap gorge, near the border with Romania, caused the river to back up and water levels to rise upstream all the way to Belgrade.

Mayor Nenad Bogdanovic said he expected the waters of the Danube and the Sava river, which converge in the city, to peak yesterday after surpassing their record highs.

"We have reinforced barriers which will resist the wave but the question is how long the water level will remain so high. That's what's worrying," said Srdjan Jovanovic, head of the Belgrade flood defence team.

He appealed to citizens to avoid a popular recreation spot on the Sava, saying some young women had pierced sandbags with their high heels, increasing the danger of collapse.

"The whole recreation area would be flooded in only a few seconds," he said.

Downstream, a Reuters cameraman saw soldiers, police and civilians using heavy machinery to stem flooding in the centre of Smederovo, where waters have inundated the city's ancient fortress, train station, and other buildings. Many houses along the Danube from Belgrade to Smederevo were also flooded.

Much of the Balkans is still reeling from devastating floods last year which drowned scores of people and destroyed houses, farmland and infrastructure worth hundreds of millions of euros.

Downstream, intentional flooding of a vast swath of forest and farmland in Romania prevented the river from engulfing towns there and across the river in Bulgaria.