Danube bursts more dykes in Romania

The swollen Danube river burst several waterlogged dikes in Romania yesterday, swamping new villages and forcing hundreds more people to leave their homes, officials said.

Europe's second-longest river, which flows through a 1,000-kilometre stretch of Romania, has submerged large swathes of land in central and south-eastern Europe.

Water levels have started falling in several countries, but Romania, the worst-hit, is still battling cracks in strained flood defences in the Danube delta near the Black Sea and faces the risk of further flooding and evacuations.

"The water flow is expected to remain high over the next 35 days and this is a permanent threat to defences and people," Environment Minister Sulfina Barbu told state radio.

Lefter Chirica, the government's representative in the county of Tulcea, told Reuters: "580 people fled overnight from the village of Ostrov in the delta as high waters threatened their lives after several dikes collapsed."

Flooding caused by heavy rain and melting snow has forced thousands of people living on the Danube's flood plains out of their homes over the past month, including around 15,800 in Romania where about 130,000 hectares of farmland and pastures are submerged.