Rivers flood in central Europe

Many rivers in the Czech Republic, Austria, and Slovakia are flooding, while record amounts of snow rapidly melt in the mountains. Extreme levels of flood danger were announced in at least 70 places. Currently the worst situations are near headwaters, such as in the town Veselí on the river Lužnice or in Třebíč. Yesterday a 5 year old boy from Boňov died.

The Czech capital, Prague, is preparing for the flood and flood defences are being set up along Vltava shores. Many locals are watching the rising river, remembering the catastrophic floods of 2002. Currently a quarter of the record flow of 2002 is flowing in Vltava. Further development depends on weather - if the melting does not combine with heavy rains, the floods are not expected to cause catastrophic damage.