Hundreds flee Romanian homes as defences break

BUCHAREST, May 1 (Reuters) Hundreds of Romanians fled their homes overnight when the swollen Danube river breached waterlogged dikes in a southwestern region, authorities said.

Flooding risk from the Danube, Europe's second-longest river, has gradually subsided over the week but officials have warned that many dikes and defences could still give way because of the prolonged water pressure.

''Waters unleashed by broken dams threaten several villages in low-lying Danube plains. Hundreds of people were being evacuated from the villages of Plosca, Bistret, Carna and Macesu,'' Constantin Raicea, mayor of the Bistret village said.

He said authorities decided to evacuate villagers as a precaution. Most people went to relatives, Raicea, who supervises the evacuation operations, added.

Elsewhere in Romania, authorities are struggling to prevent a humanitarian disaster triggered by water-borne diseases in several evacuee camps of military tents as the havoc wreaked by Danube left at least 4,000 homeless.

Authorities reported around 16,000 evacuations since the river began spilling its banks last month. Large swaths of land and hundreds of houses along the river remain under water.

The Danube poured over dams and burst defences throughout central and southeastern Europe as melting snow and heavy rains raised water levels to century highs.

In neighbouring Bulgaria, civil defence has started pumping out water from the flooded hospital, kindergarten and city hall of Nikopol, home to 4,000 people.

People and local authorities in the towns and villages along the Danube are cleaning up the mud and dirt in the areas where the waters have withdrawn and civil defence units are disinfecting the areas to avoid spreading of diseases.

REUTERS SB KN1654