The river Danube was set to reach record levels in Budapest yesterday night and dikes have been strengthened at critical points to protect the capital from flooding, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said.

Tens of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes and there have been at least a dozen deaths as a result of floods that have hit Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic over the past week.

The deluge reached Hungary on Friday but so far authorities, soldiers and thousands of volunteers have managed to defend the villages and towns along the river, piling more than three million sandbags beside its dikes.

Carmaker Suzuki, one of Hungary’s main exporters, is halting production at its plant in Esztergom, north of Budapest, today because of the floods, spokeswoman Viktoria Ruska said.

The closure of a bridge means that many of the plant’s 3,000 employees would not be able to get to work, Ruska said, adding that production will resume tomorrow if conditions allow.

The Danube is expected to peak at 8.95 metres (30ft) in Budapest on yesterday night, above the 8.6-metre record in the 2006 floods.

More than 1,300 people from 34 towns and villages in Hungary have been forced to leave their homes.

“The (floods) are approaching the heart of the country now. The next two days will be decisive,” Orban told a news conference in Esztergom earlier in the day.