EUROPE: Heavy rains caused severe floods across much of Europe yesterday, leaving at least eight dead, scores missing and thousands evacuated from their homes at the height of the summer holiday season.
The worst tragedy was in southern Russia when flash floods swept down a mountainside swamping two camp sites, with more than 80 people said to be missing.
One group of about 80 people were swept into the Black Sea near the southern city of Novorossiisk, with 10 later rescued, but another 70 were still missing, Interfax news agency said.
In the second incident, ITAR-TASS news agency reported 12 people missing in the neighbouring resort village of Abrau-Dyurso when a lake spilled its banks, sweeping away a small tent village set up by tourists.
Initial reports said the floods were caused by torrential rains on Wednesday.
Reports said the emergencies ministry had evacuated more than 440 people from Novorossiisk. The rains disrupted train services in the region and swept aside several roads.
In Tajikistan, 24 people died on Wednesday when rivers of mud poured down a southern mountainside before dawn, carrying off 75 houses in the village of Dacht and leaving 540 homeless, the president's press office said.
The heavy rains also hit parts of eastern Europe, with 2,000 people evacuated in the Czech Republic when the rivers of Malse and Vltava overflowed leaving several areas cut off, Czech news agency CTK said.
A 21-year-old student was killed when she was hit by a falling tree close to her home near Pisek in southern Bohemia.
In southern Romania, two people died in floods caused by the heavy rains and several roads were cut off, police said.
A boy of eight was carried off by flood waters when a river in the southern village of Farcasesti burst its banks and a 62-year-old man drowned in the neighbouring village.
In Austria a German holidaymaker was reported missing in the central city of Salzburg after flood waters swept away bridges and cut roads in the provinces of Upper and Lower Austria.
Local police said the man probably fell into the swollen Saalbach river and a search failed to find any trace of him. In Lower Austria about 1,000 people had to be evacuated after several dams burst.
"I've never seen such floods or such damage in my life," said provincial governor Erwin Proell.
The rainfall over the 48-hour period broke all records in the region, according to the meteorological office in Vienna. The old town of Krems on the Danube, a popular tourist destination 45 miles north of Vienna, was so inundated that floodwaters entered the local hospital, Austrian state radio said.
In Lower Austria, the river Kamp rose to its highest level since records began in 1896, officials said. Helicopters lowered rescuers to take residents of the Kamp Valley village of Zoebing from rooftops.
Germany has also witnessed record rainfall since the start of the month, the worst of it in the southern province of Bavaria where many roads have turned into streaming rivers.
Firemen were called in to pump away water from the motorway linking southern Munich to Salzburg in Austria -- (AFP)