Europe struggles with extreme weather, from flooding to forest fires

Europe struggled with extreme weather at the weekend, from heavy rain that brought flooding and evacuations to Slovenia and Austria, Poland and Croatia, while fires continued to plague Spain and Portugal amidst a continuing heatwave.

On Sunday, Slovenia and Austria dealt with floods caused by days of heavy rain that forced the evacuation of villages and historic damage, as emergency crews remained on alert for landslides and potential dam bursts.

The floods affected more than two-thirds of Slovenia and appeared to be the worst natural disaster to strike the small country since it gainded independence in 1991.

Croatia and Poland were also hit by heavy rainstorms, which began on Friday, although flooding and other damage there initially remained more mild.

In Slovenia, photos taken on Sunday showed devastating conditions after landslides and floods left villages cut off from the outside world.

Helicopters supplied thousands of disaster relief workers with the bare necessities. Hundreds of people were forced into emergency shelters because of the threat of landslides.

Slovenian and Austrian authorities did not have precise information on possible deaths related to the floods.

In Slovenia, police are investigating four deaths to determine whether they are connected to the storms. Among the dead are two Dutch citizens, a father and a son aged 50 and 20, believed to have been struck by lightning while hiking.

The search for a missing Italian man also continued on Sunday.

In Austria, a woman died on Sunday after falling into the flooded Glan River in the village of Zollfeld in the south of the country, according to eyewitnesses. Her body was later recovered.

Of particular concern on Sunday were high water levels along the approximately 450-kilometre-long Mura river, also known as the Mur, which forms in Austria before flowing into Slovenia. The river also touches Croatia and Hungary.

A dam on the river in eastern Slovenia burst on Saturday evening, forcing about 500 residents to evacuate from the village of Dolnja Bistrica. Miroslav Vuk, head of the local disaster response authority, said attempts are under way to seal the dam with sandbags and about two tons of concrete blocks.

Although river levels were generally stabilizing, Slovenia's Geological Survey warned that high soil moisture created an increased danger of landslides. It urged residents to look out for changes on the ground and in buildings, STA news agency reported.

Slovenian rescuers responded in 186 locations overnight from Saturday into Sunday, pumping out water and evacuating people from endangered buildings, removing fallen trees and delivering supplies of food and medicine.

Due to the landslide threat, 110 people were brought to safety near Koroška Bela and along the Meža river near the border with Austria, where rescuers were also battling the effects of the flooding.

Buses evacuated a total of 85 Dutch citizens from the flooded areas and returned them to the Netherlands on Sunday, the ANP news agency in the Netherlands reported. The members of the group were unharmed, but their cars were badly damaged by the storm or swept away by mud.

Five Dutch people missing on Saturday were safely accounted for, according to the Foreign Ministry in The Hague.

In Austria, as many as 5,000 firefighters supported by soldiers responded to the aftermath of the storm, particularly in the provinces of Carinthia, Styria and parts of Burgenland.

Rain in affected areas of southern Austria has eased considerably since Saturday, but a number of sodden slopes were threatening to slide, according to the fire brigade.

Fire crews also went repeatedly to pump out flooded cellars, a spokesman in the province of Carinthia told Austria's ORF radio station. At least 40 houses and flats in Carinthia were also evacuated as a precaution because of the threat of landslides.

The neighbouring province of Styria, which like Carinthia is located on the border with Slovenia, was also affected. There, the levels of most rivers and streams fell, with the exception of the Mur.

The sun peaked out through clouds on Sunday, although light rain showers continued, according to the weather service Geosphere Austria.

In Croatia, disaster control officials remained vigilant. Water levels of the rivers in Croatia had risen, they remained below the record levels of previous years.

In some places, however, the Sava River overflowed its banks. About 50 houses in the municipality of Brdovec near Zagreb were affected.

"We assume that there will be no further increase in the inflows from Slovenia," said the head of the water management office, Zoran Djurokovic.

Meanwhile, parts of north-eastern Poland were battered overnight by a severe thunderstorm with heavy rain. According to the fire department, streets in the city of Olsztyn were submerged in up to 80 centimetres of water, the PAP agency reported.

Meteorologists warned that rivers could burst their banks in north-eastern Poland because of the persistent rain. For the capital Warsaw, the authorities had warned of a storm on Saturday evening, but it stayed mostly dry.

On Sunday, a low pressure system with the threat of storms and hail moved across the country from west to east toward Warsaw.

Elsewhere in Europe, forest fires in Portugal and Spain burned through thousands of hectares over the weekend.

The most devastating of the forest fires, in western Portugal, had destroyed 6,200 hectares and injured six people as of Sunday morning, according to Portuguese civil defence authorities.

Several villages threatened by the flames had been evacuated while a curfew had been imposed by other villages in the area.

More than 1,100 emergency workers as well as 11 helicopters and firefighting aircraft are now battling the flames, which have been raging since Friday in the districts of Castelo Branco and Proença-a-Nova, according to official reports.

Civil defence spokesman Jody Rato told journalists that it will likely take several days to bring the fire under control. There are also several smaller forest fires burning in Portugal.

In Spain, officials said late on Saturday night that they had largely brought under control a forest fire near Portbou in the north-eastern region of Catalonia, not far from the border with France. The fire covered 573 hectares.

Another forest fire in the southern Spanish province of Huelva in Andalusia had been "stabilized" on Sunday, according to the regional emergency services.