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Europe's worst flooding in more than a decade has hit northern Germany, with the swollen River Elbe inundating large swathes of land and forcing thousands of people to leave their homes, as it surged towards the North Sea.
In the state of Saxony Anhalt, where the situation is reported to be "very critical" after the river yesterday surpassed the highest level of the last major flooding in 2002, around a thousand troops of the German army joined hundreds of volunteers and rescue workers to reinforce seeping dykes along the river with sandbags and prevent a much larger catastrophe.
In the state capital Magdeburg, around 3,000 persons were evacuated from low-lying residential areas in danger of flooding as the river peaked 7.4 metres, half-a-meter more than eleven years ago, compared to its normal level of 2 metres.
In another part of the city, the authorities asked several thousand residents to leave their homes and move to higher places while power supply was cut elsewhere in the city due to safety considerations after the flood waters seeped into the main streets.
In the nearby city of Wittenberg, thousands of volunteers struggled to shore up the city's flood defences, bracing for the arrival of the flood waters.
Widespread flooding in central Europe, which was triggered over a week ago by heavy rainfalls in southern and eastern Germany and in the neighbouring Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, had caused extensive damage and claimed 15 lives in these countries.
Magdeburg's Mayor Lutz Truemper said his city is facing the "worst flooding" in living memory and expressed fears whether the reinforced dykes can withstand the pressure from the swollen river in the coming days.
"Everything has been done to strengthen the dykes and now we can only wait and pray," he said in a TV interview.
A few kilometres upstream the Elbe at its confluence with the River Saale, around 13,000 people were evacuated from the city of Aken and a nearby town in view of the possibility that a dyke could break and the flood water from both rivers could inundate large areas.
In the state of Saxony, where flood waters from neighbouring Czech Republic poured into the Elbe in the past days, large parts of the the capital city Dresden and several other towns and villages remained submerged under the flood water even though the water level in the river has fallen.
However, there are fears that the situation could aggravate as fresh rains in that region are forecast for the coming days.
