Trail of death and destruction

Slovak villagers drink beer and liquor in a flooded restaurant-pub in eastern Slovak village of Kapusany yesterday. Floods damaged over fifty houses including several in this village. PHOTO: AFP

Two people were killed and two others reported missing after three days of torrential downpours in central and eastern Switzerland turned Alpine streams into raging torrents and triggered flooding around the country's lakes.

It brought the confirmed death toll in Switzerland to four, after two fire fighters were killed in a landslide Sunday near Lucerne.

Floods also hit Austria, where two people have died, Bulgaria and southern Germany, hitting roads, homes, railways and tourist spots.

In Switzerland, roads and railways through the Alps were cut, helicopters helped evacuate mountain homes and campsites, and schools were closed in many areas, the authorities said, although water levels were later reported to be stabilising.

Low-lying neighbourhoods of the capital, Bern, were partly underwater after the river Aare exceeded record levels set during floods in 1999.

About 2,500 people, including some tourists, have been granted temporary shelter in civil defence facilities or hotels in villages and towns in several areas over the past two days.

In Germany, flooding was worst surrounding the popular Alpine ski resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria. The town, where 105 liters per cubic metre fell overnight, was almost completely cut off when the Partnach dam burst, turning the main road into a surging river and flooding hundreds of cellars.

"We're in a state of chaos," said Bernd Putzer, the local police spokesman in Garmisch said, adding that rescue workers were having problems getting to the area.

All train traffic between Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the regional capital Munich was suspended and more than 1,000 firefighters, troops and police were sent to that area alone to reinforce local rescue services.

Emergency warnings were also issued in three other parts of the state.

In neighbouring Austria, one person was found dead in the western region of Tyrol, apparently killed in a rockslide, and nine were injured in Vorarlberg, also in the west, including six when flood waters set off an explosion in their house for as yet unclear reasons. Two others are missing.