4 million Germans face floods chaos

Four million Germans are facing chaos as devastating floods caused Chancellor Gerhard Schr?der to declare a "national catastrophe".

Tens of thousands of Dresden residents were today ordered to flee the torrents that have already claimed more than 100 lives across a vast swathe of central Europe.

The early morning evacuation call came after a scramble to save some of the world's great art treasures, including a prized Rembrandt collection, from the flooded vaults of the Zwinger Palace.

With 11 Germans already dead from the floods and the water still rising along the River Elbe, the authorities are taking no chances.

Security officials touring streets with loudhailers, hope to clear about 30,000 people from their homes in and around the town of Pirna, 12 miles south of Dresden, by mid-morning when the water is predicted to peak at 36 feet. The authorities are building a tent city to accommodate the evacuees and military helicopters are delivering bread to those already cut off by the water.

Two more neighbourhoods close to the historic city centre were evacuated after nightfall. Already, 5,000 residents in the city have been forced to leave their homes.

Despite forecasts of sunny weather on the way, thousands more people had to be evacuated from the city of Magdeburg and Brandenburg state, surrounding Berlin, where it is feared rain-swollen rivers will spill their banks over the weekend. To the southeast-in Europe, the massively-swollen Danube is again raising alarm. It is expected to peak later today in Bratislava, the Slovak capital, at a 500-year high. The Hungarian capital Budapest is braced for the high water to hit on Sunday.

In Austria, where floods left seven dead, the capital Vienna was spared more major flooding as the Danube receded.

Waters are also receding in Prague, where thousands of sandbags kept the raging river from punching through and flooding more of the historic Czech capital's Old Town.

Authorities had to explode five ships that had broken loose and threatened to ram bridges. One man was killed by the flying debris, raising the death toll there to 11.

Actor Sean Connery, who was in Prague shooting a film during the height of the flooding, said: "I couldn't adequately express the disaster that it is now."

Unprecedented floods continue to wreak havoc elsewhere. In Mexico, at least 14 people died after one dam broke and another overflowed sending water rushing through towns in two central Mexican states.

In China, a huge mudslide swept through several villages in the south-west Yunnan province, killing 67 people.

Meanwhile, in London temperatures are expected to nudge 90F (32C) tomorrow, hotter than the Costa del Sol and the South of France.

Sunday will be a little cooler but weathermen say there should hardly be a cloud in sight until at least Tuesday when we can expect some thundery outbreaks of rain.