JNN 12 June 2013 Berlin : More than 24,000 people have been forced to evacuate their homes in Germany and Hungary as dramatic increases in the levels of Elbe and Danube rivers continued to cause severe floods in Central Europe. officials said Sunday.

Some 23,000 people were evacuated from the east German city of Magdeburg on Sunday, after a dam burst on the Elbe. The water levels reportedly rose to a record 7.48 meters, about five meters above normal level.

Parts of the south and north ends of the Hungarian capital are already under water, but the city’s downtown area, including the parliament building and several large hotels near the river bank, are seemingly out of direct danger as flood walls were built to a height of 30.5 feet.

Officials said nearly 8,000 volunteers and specialized crews in Budapest had strengthened flood walls by packing and placing one million sand bags and many are also monitoring defenses for any leaks.

About 1,200 people left their homes in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, to flee damage from the swollen Danube that peaked at highest level overnight.

Budapest Mayor Istvan Tarlos said in a news conference on Monday that Danube rose to record high of 8.91 meters late on Sunday, adding, “Thank God the river has started to recede … (and) I have no catastrophe to report.”

Thousands of people from 34 towns and villages have been urged to leave their homes in Hungary, and 44 roads closed because of the floods.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban said 20,000 people have worked along Danube to strengthen defenses and now the focus switched to the south of the capital.

At least 21 flood-related deaths have been reported in central Europe, as rivers such as the Danube, the Elbe and the Vlatava have overflowed after a week of heavy rains and caused extensive damage in central and southern Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary.

The latest fatality was an 80-year-old man who died of a heart attack in Austria on Sunday while cleaning up debris caused by flooding, the German news agency dpa reported.

In Magdeburg, the state capital of Saxony-Anhalt in eastern Germany, more than 23,000 residents had to leave their homes Sunday afternoon after many streets and buildings were flooded and electricity was shut off, dpa said.

The neighborhood of Rothensee was especially hard-hit by the floods of the Elbe river — residents were being evacuated with tanks, trucks and buses.

“Rothensee is filling up like a bathtub,” Germany army spokesman Andre Sabzog told dpa.

Around 700 soldiers were trying frantically to build a dam of sandbags around a power substation. A flooding of the substation would not only leave thousands of households without water, but also lead to a breakdown of the neighborhood’s dewatering pumps.

Another 8,000 people had been evacuated from the town of Aken and its neighboring villages after a dam on the Elbe river broke Saturday, police spokesman Uwe Holz said.

Further north on the Elbe river, residents were trying to protect themselves from flooding by building levees along the banks of the rising waterway.

Officials in Saxony-Anhalt state also were investigating what appeared to be a threat to destroy dams.

Several media outlets said they had received a letter threatening to blow up dams on the Elbe river, Holger Stahlknecht, the state’s interior minister, said Sunday.

“We are taking the letter seriously,” he told dpa. He said authorities have stepped up their surveillance of dams and urged residents to remain calm.

In Hungary, officials said the flooded Danube River was expected to reach Budapest late Sunday, but that defenses should keep the water out of most of the capital.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said no casualties have been reported in his country, but that 7,000 soldiers and thousands of volunteers were packing sandbags on the banks of the Danube to shore up flood walls.

“The flood is now approaching Budapest, the heart of the country,” Orban said in Esztergom, some 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Budapest. “Two decisive days are ahead of us because the danger will be where most people live and where most things of value are at risk. It is now when we have to gather all our strength.”

While no flood-related deaths or injuries have been reported in Hungary, some 1,400 people have been evacuated from towns and villages along the Danube, including over 200 in Budapest.

At least 18 people have reportedly died as Central Europe’s worst floods hit Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

The Cologne Institute for Economic Research said the damage from the floods in Germany would add up to over 6 billion euros.

On Sunday, parts of Poland’s capital, Warsaw, were flooded following hours of heavy rain. Reports say that one of the capital’s busiest motorways was inundated.