Czech authorities have ordered the evacuation of thousands more residents from Prague's city centre as the worst floods in a century spilled into the 800-year-old capital.
Police and rescue teams worked frantically as Prague's 1.2 million residents saw the Vltava river reach its peak in the early afternoon at three times above normal levels, officials said.
Water lapped around historic monuments in the city centre, where residents of the picturesque Old Town and the former Jewish quarter were ordered to evacuate.
The Czech government declared a state of emergency on Monday and some 200,000 people have already been evacuated. Nine people have died so far, mainly in Prague and southern Bohemia, and around 1,000 have been rescued.
Water has inundated parts of the historic Mala Strana district, and volunteers have filled sandbags in the main square of the Old Town in a desperate effort to protect national monuments.
Also under threat is the 14th century Charles Bridge, which was badly damaged in the last comparable flood to hit Prague in 1890, and the 17th century Troja castle which houses priceless works of art.
The normally bustling tourist sites in the historic heart of the Czech capital were deserted as the evacuations continued. Police sirens echoed through the cobbled streets and rescue helicopters hummed overhead.
Officials said some 50,000 telephone lines were out of service in Prague and parts of Bohemia, while gas had been cut to four districts in the capital.
Traffic was at a standstill in the central districts and only two bridges over the Vltava were open to cars.
The Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin has advised Irish citizens to postpone unnecessary journeys to the area.
A number of public's favourite animals, including Kadir, a 36-year-old elephant, a female hippopatamus, a lion, and a bear, were put down by vets at Prague Zoo to avoid them suffering by drowning. A sea lion was carried away by the Vltava's rushing waters and a gorilla drowned in his cage.
Workers were able to save around 400 animals before the rising waters swept through the zoo.
Experts say the costs of the damage, which will take weeks to assess, will easily top the 60 billion crowns (€1.9 billion) from floods in 1997, when nearly 50 people died.
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Rescue workers carry an elderly woman from her home in Prague's Old City today
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Officials in neighbouring Slovakia declared a state of emergency in the capital, Bratislava, where the Danube was rising dangerously.
Five more people died in Germany today, pushing the toll there to seven. Raging waters cut off some towns in the German state of Saxony and left parts of Dresden flooded, including the famed Semper-Oper opera house and the Zwinger palace, home to a renowned collection of Renaissance paintings.
In Austria, where at least seven people have died, firefighters and Red Cross volunteers used sandbags to hold back parts of the swollen Danube, which flooded Vienna's port and some low-lying streets.
Most of Europe's flooding casualties were in Russia, where the death toll rose to 59 today - mostly Russian tourists on the Black Sea who were swept away by swiftly moving water late last week.