15 September 2024 , 13:06
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At least six people have died as dams fail to hold back floodwaters in eastern Europe.
Brown waters have been filmed carrying debris half a storey high as they gush through towns and villages in the country’s south west.
Aerial footage shows entire settlements submerged.
This includes the Kłodzko Valley, where the first death by drowning was confirmed by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk this morning.
Dams have been overwhelmed by the volume of rain (Picture: Reuters)
One person who filmed flooding in Stronie Śląskie, a town near the Czech border, said: ‘A catastrophic hydrological situation with an overflowing and damaged retention reservoir nearby.’
At least four people were killed in Romania, and a firefighter has died in Austria while responding to the flash floods submerging much of central and eastern Europe.
One man is missing after being washed away in Czechia where another dam burst and three people in a car were swept into a river.
The deluges were sparked by the torrential rains of Storm Boris.
Roughly 5,000 homes were flooded in Romania’s Galati region alone, sparking massive evacuation efforts (Picture: Daniel Mihailesco/AFP via Getty Images)
It’s damaged thousands of homes across Austria, Czechia, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.
Rescue teams have had to evacuate and rescue thousands of people trapped by flooding in the worst affected areas.
It is a ‘catastrophe of epic proportions’, according to Emil Dragomir, mayor of Slobozia Conachi, a village in eastern Romania, where 700 homes were flooded.
Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis said: ‘We are again facing the effects of climate change, which are increasingly present on the European continent, with dramatic consequences.’