Workers fight to save Prague Old Town

At least nine people were killed in Prague as the engorged Vltava River cascaded into the city centre. About 70,000 residents have had to flee their homes.

“We are fighting a phenomenon,” Prague Mayor Igor Nemec said. “Whether the water will spill over the barriers or not remains to be seen.”

Sirens wailed through deserted streets as the evacuation continued, spurred on by water lapping up to within a foot-and-a-half of the edge of the barriers. Helicopters buzzed overhead.

Workers arrived before dawn at Prague’s City Hall to save documents in offices threatened by the river.

Residents in the former Jewish quarter - the site of a centuries-old cemetery and several synagogues - were also ordered out.

“The situation is not optimistic, but I think we can still cope with it,” said Jaroslav Tvrdik, the Czech defence minister, as he watched the evacuation.

Much of the capital remained without electricity, and at least three streets in the city’s centre were accessible only by boat.

Emergency workers used cranes to hoist up crushed boats, barrels, telephone poles and other debris choking the channel.

After water engulfed Prague’s historic Kampa island - flooding ornate palaces and villas dating to the Hapsburg Empire - volunteers redoubled their efforts to save the heart of the city from its normally sleepy river.

Volunteers used shovels and their bare hands to scoop sand into white plastic sandbags, piling them around the city’s landmarks. They then sprayed plastic foam into the cracks between the sandbags.

Czech Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla deployed 4,000 soldiers throughout the country, and President Vaclav Havel cut short a holiday in Portugal.

Among the wrecked bridges was a 13th century one in Pisek, 60 miles south of Prague. The normally placid Otava River swamped the 360ft structure, leaving only the heads of the statues decorating the bridge above the water line.

At the Zoological Garden on the outskirts of Prague, about 400 animals were moved to higher ground yesterday. Two rhinos were moved with a crane, and four gorillas were sedated for the evacuation. A fifth gorilla was missing but presumed to be hiding within the zoo.

Vets put to sleep a 35-year-old Indian elephant called Kadir after he was stranded in flooded part of the zoo and officials decided he could not be saved from the flooding.

In neighbouring Austria, where at least seven people have died, firefighters and Red Cross volunteers using sandbags worked into the night to hold back parts of the swollen Danube River. The waters flooded Vienna’s port and some low-lying streets.

The Defence Ministry said 8,000 soldiers battled floods in Upper Austria and along the Danube after flooding that affected an estimated 60,000 Austrians.

In Salzburg province, more than 1,000 buildings were under water, and in the badly flooded Danube town of Krems, residents were urged to abandon lower floors last night.

“We are sitting here in a bathtub without a plug,” said Alfred Riedl, the mayor of Grafenwoerth in Lower Austria.

But Austria’s national weather service forecast an end to the torrential rains that unleashed the catastrophic flooding more than a week ago.

Most deaths occurred on Russia’s Black Sea coast, where 59 people have been killed. Most of the dead were holidaymakers whose tents and cars were swept into the sea.

And the toll could rise higher there: Thirty cars and buses remain on the sea floor, and authorities have not been able to search them yet. New storm warnings were issued for the area.

In Germany, dams were in danger of breaking along the Danube near Passau, a city on the Austrian border whose old town was completely submerged yesterday.

In Romania, flooding and strong winds have killed at least seven people, including a 24-year-old woman and her 17-month-old baby.