Flood clean-up work begins in Czech Republic amid reports of looting

The first instances of looting have been reported in areas affected by flooding in the Czech Republic, Interior Minister Vit Rakušan said on Wednesday after a crisis meeting in Prague.

He said that the law prescribes harsher penalties for such acts during disaster situations and warned that burglary carries penalties of up to 15 years in prison without parole.

Meanwhile, a further rise in water levels is expected today along the Elbe river near the border with the German state of Saxony.

In the Czech city of Ústí nad Labem, flood barriers and sandbags have been deployed to protect the area from potential flooding.

A person was reportedly seen in the river near the Marienbrücke bridge, but a search operation was unsuccessful.

Many low-lying areas along the riverbanks have already been inundated, and the district of Dolní Žleb in the Elbe Valley remains accessible only by rail.

Across the country, the highest level of flood alert remains in place at more than 25 monitoring stations.

After the devastating floods in the east of the country, the first clean-up efforts are under way. In many places, the volunteers confronted scenes of overwhelming destruction. Masses of mud engulfed shops, homes and schools.

The army has deployed heavy equipment. Helicopters delivered drinking water and food to towns and municipalities in the Jeseníky Mountains on the border with Poland, which were cut off from the outside world due to damaged roads and collapsed bridges.

The government in Prague sent a request for assistance to other EU countries, asking for 15,000 dehumidifiers to dry out buildings.

About 8,000 devices are currently being distributed from their own reserves.

In neighbouring Slovakia, the Danube remained at a high level of more than 9.7 metres above sea level in the capital Bratislava. Before the storms, it was about 2 metres.