New surge of flood water hits villages

Eastern Germany Floods Worsen

The latest breach came in the early hours of the morning, as the floodwater gushed through a hole in the dyke, one kilometre wide, submerging several roads on the way. The surge of water hit several small villages which have already borne the brunt of the flooding. Another 250 people have been told to leave their homes and seek shelter further inland.

Hundreds more people evacuated

Hundreds of soldiers and volunteer workers are battling to hold back the water, building lines of sand-bag walls and trying to divert the flow away from inhabited areas.

In Frankfurt-an-der-Oder itself, the river has peaked at a new record - six metres and thirty five centimetres above its normal level. However, the authorities here remain confident the defences will hold.

To the north of the city, in the low-lying Oderbruck region, there was a brief scare when part of a dyke began slipping under the water pressure. Thousands more sand-bags were delivered by truck and by helicopter and, for the moment, the danger there seems to have been averted.

Despite the dangers, some people in threatened areas are continuing to defy orders to leave their homes. In an attempt to reassure them, police have begun helicopter surveillance flights, using heat sensitive cameras to look for signs of looters.

Heavy rains in recent weeks have also wreaked havoc in Poland and in the Czech republic. More than 100 people have been killed, and billions of dollars' worth of livestock and farmland have been destroyed.