Europe braced for yet more rain

A quarter of a million weary and fearful evacuees forced from their homes across Europe overnight by the most devastating floods in more than a century, awoke today to news of more rains.

Medieval cities, including Prague where more than 50,000 reluctant residents and tourists were forced to flee the torrents which have already killed 90 people, are bracing themselves for more misery.

With damage already running into billions of pounds and many of Europe's busiest tourist centres effectively cut off at the height of the summer season, the cost is horrendous. Thousands of Britons are among those forced to cancel holidays.

In Germany, numerous dams were in danger of breaking in towns along the Danube near Passau, a city on the Austrian border whose old town was completely submerged. The Elbe burst its banks as it passed through Dresden, leaving the Zwinger Palace, home of one of Europe's great art museums and the city's main railway station, partially submerged.

In Croatia, according to the country's tourist board, 25,000 people - up to 8,000 of them British - have cancelled trips and those already on holiday have shortened their stay.

A Welsh women's under-21 hockey team was today stranded in a hotel in Ceske Budejovice, two hours south of Prague, by a moat of water. The 27 players and supporters are helping local residents fill sandbags to protect the hotel from rising water after an international tournament was cancelled on Sunday.

In Austria firefighters, Red Cross volunteers and engineers worked through the night to hold back parts of the swollen Danube. The waters flooded Vienna's port and some low- lying streets.

Alfred Riedl, the mayor of Grafenwoerth in Lower Austria, said: "We're sitting here in a bathtub without a plug."

Most of Europe's casualties were in Russia, where at least 58 people were killed last week - mostly Russian tourists holidaying on the Black Sea who were swept away by swiftly moving water.

The states of Bavaria and Saxony have also been among the hardest hit. In Romania, at least seven people were killed in floods and high winds in recent days.