Rescue workers sought to clear flood-borne debris including damaged cars and evacuate victims after heavy rains and stormy winds across central Europe killed at least 15 people over the weekend.
Heavy downpours yesterday caused rivers to overflow their banks and a dam to burst, submerging Bogatynia and other towns in southwest Poland and killing at least three people.
Flood damage and deaths also were reported in neighbouring countries. The death toll in the Czech Republic grew to five today and another three were missing and feared drowned.
On Saturday, three people died in the German town of Neukirchen, near the Czech border.
In neighbouring Lithuania, falling trees and structures killed four and injured several, with thousands being left without electricity after storm winds hit the country.
The army, police and fire-service rescuers were using amphibious vehicles, helicopters and heavy earth-moving equipment to evacuate flood victims and clear debris including damaged cars blocking narrow streets.
The weekend deluge followed major spring and summer flooding across Poland, which caused widespread property damage and claimed some two dozen lives.
In Germany, authorities at the weekend evacuated some 1,400 people around the town of Goerlitz, on the border with Poland, where they expected the flooding level to rise after topping 7 metres (23 feet).
In the Czech Republic, extra rescue personnel and soldiers were called in to help with evacuation from some of the worst affected towns in the north of the country, and helicopters were used to reach villages cut off by the swollen rivers.
