Prague, 16 September 2024 (dpa/MIA) — The Czech Republic has confirmed its first death in the floodwaters sweeping across large swathes of the Central European country, Czech Police President Martin Vondrášek told public radio on Monday morning.

Vondrášek said the individual drowned in the small Krasová river in the Moravian-Silesian region.

Authorities reported at least seven missing people, including three who are believed to have been trapped in a car when it got caught in a raging river near the spa town of Jesenik, near the border with flood-hit Poland. There is no trace of the vehicle so far.

The other missing persons are said to have fallen into various bodies of water, such as the Otava river. Additionally, a man from a nursing home near the Polish border is missing.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala described the situation as a once-in-a-century flood.

Over the weekend, streets in town like Jesenik in the Altvater Mountains, Opava on the river of the same name and Krnov on the border with Poland turned into raging torrents.

In Jesenik, emergency services rescued hundreds of people with boats and helicopters. The mayor of the town said on television: "It was an apocalypse, there is mud everywhere, everything is destroyed."

The main square in the city centre temporarily turned into a single body of water, with cars floating on it. Several houses collapsed in the region. After the water masses receded, landslides threatened.

Flood-hit Austria braces for more heavy rainfall

Further significant rainfall is expected in Austria on Monday after severe thunderstorms caused flooding across Central Europe at the weekend, including in the Czech Republic and Poland.

The entire flood-hit state of Lower Austria, which borders on the Czech Republic and surrounds the capital Vienna, has been declared a disaster zone by the government. Up to 60 more litres of rain per square metre are expected in the state by Tuesday, a state official said.

Several hundred people have been rescued from high water in Lower Austria, according to emergency services. A firefighter died on Sunday while pumping out a cellar.

Romania continues to battle floodwaters that have killed six so far

The situation in Romania remained tense on Monday after at least six people died in heavy rain and severe flooding over the weekend.

The regions of Galați, Vaslui and Iași in the east of the country were particularly hard hit. About 300 people had to be evacuated from there, and around 6,000 farmhouses were impacted by the flooding.

The water mostly affected remote villages, where people climbed onto rooftops to avoid being swept away by the floods. Hundreds of firefighters were deployed.