Floods in Austria claimed their first victim on Tuesday as rising water in rivers caused a second dam to break, forcing many to evacuate their homes while emergency services worked to reinforce flood defences.
An 18-month old boy was found dead on Tuesday afternoon after falling into the swollen Duerre Ager river while playing in front of his parents’ house in St Georgen im Attergau, north-east of Salzburg, in northern Austria.
His mother alerted police after noticing the boy’s disappearance around noon but rescue efforts could only recover his body late in the afternoon. The Duerre Ager flows into the Danube.
In eastern Austria, on the border with Slovakia, a dam broke early on Tuesday 8km downstream from Duernkrut, which was partly flooded on Monday when another nearby dam burst due to rising water levels, fire services said.
”The protection wall broke over a length of 50m to 60m,” said Joerg Wuerzelberger, spokesperson for the province’s fire department, although he added there was ”no aggravation of the situation”.
The army and fire department were on their way to try and close the dam near Stillfried, in Lower Austria, about 20km east of Vienna, and an army Black Hawk helicopter was also sent to help, said Franz Honeder from the province’s military command.
Half of Stillfried was evacuated and other dams on the March river, which forms the border with Slovakia and flows into the Danube, were being reinforced with sandbags.
More people were evacuated overnight south of Duernkrut and fire departments from Vienna, and as far as Melk and Krems, 100km from the affected area, were mobilised to help, the fire department said.
In neighbouring Hungary, authorities reported that water levels were going down in the north of the country most affected by the flooding, but in Budapest the Danube reached a record 8,58m and was expected to rise to 8,6m before receding.
The previous high in the capital was 8,48m during the catastrophic floods that hit central Europe in 2002.
Budapest mayor Gabor Demszky called on drivers to use public transport after traffic was almost paralysed all over the city late on Monday, following flooding on the river banks and a few main roads.
Some tram lines and neighbourhoods close to the river were also closed to traffic.
In all, the country has declared flood alerts over 2 903 kilometres of waterways, 516 people have been evacuated and over 11 500 houses are in danger of being flooded, affecting 32 600 inhabitants.
About 25 000 workers and volunteers were working to reinforce dikes and dams. — Sapa-AFP