Poland fortifies towns as deadly floods hit central Europe

Volunteers in the Polish town of Nysa made flood walls to stem swollen rivers on Tuesday after heavy rain and flooding round central Europe that has killed at least 18 people.

Rivers were still spilling banks in the Czech Republic, while the River Danube was rising in Slovakia and Hungary, and flooding has also affected Austria.

The Czech-Polish border areas are among the worst-hit since the weekend, as gushing, debris-filled rivers devastated some towns, collapsing or damaging bridges and destroying houses.

Poland has declared a state of disaster in the area and set aside 1 billion zlotys (AED 954 million) for flood victims.

Overnight, volunteers helped rescue workers heave sandbags to build up the broken embankment around Nysa, a town of 40,000 in southern Poland.

Some residents were looking to check homes after evacuations were called on Monday.

National fire chief Mariusz Feltynowski said on Tuesday in meetings with Prime Minister Donald Tusk in the city of Wroclaw that the Nysa embankment was sealed, with military helicopters joining the operation to drop sandbags.