By Jan Lopatka
Prague - Residents of Prague began to evacuate parts of the historic Czech capital before dawn on Tuesday, hours before the worst flood in over a century was expected to hit.
Authorities ordered the evacuation of up to 50 000 people after days of rain swelled rivers in the south of this central European country and killed seven people.
Torrential rains have also hit neighbouring Germany and Austria and floods in Russia killed dozens of people, bringing the death toll from European storms to more than 70 in a week.
Prague Mayor Igor Nemec said early on Tuesday that parts of the picturesque quarter of Mala Strana would be flooded by the afternoon because heavy rain in the south had forced dams on the river Vltava, which flows through Prague, to open their gates.
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Nemec said the 14th-century Charles Bridge, one of Prague's main tourist attractions and decorated with statues of saints, would be closed to allow cranes to remove tree trunks and other debris carried along by the river.
Water was already overflowing the Vltava's banks in some communities on the outskirts of Prague, especially in the south, and the rain continued to fall.
Jiri Friedel from Povodi Vltavy, a state company managing dams on the Vltava, said water may rise to ine to two metres in some residential areas. A hospital on the Vltava bank was evacuated.
The mayor asked psychologists to help at shelters for evacuees and ordered 3 000 young men enlisted for civic duty to help rescuers on Tuesday.
There was no panic on the streets in the early hours of Tuesday and many residents appeared to be planning to wait a few more hours to leave their homes.
"We are going to a store where I work, then we will go to our relatives," said Arnost Hartman, 75, who was leaving the working-class quarter of Karlin, the largest evacuated area, with his wife.
Irena Hrubantova, 33, a waitress in Karlin, said she had not heard about the evacuations until a friend phoned her four hours after they were ordered. "But my boss is telling me over the phone I must stay on guard here."
Mayor Nemec tried to soothe fears about possible looting, saying police and soldiers would guard all the emptied areas.
The Prague Zoological Gardens began evacuating some of the animals, including birds and monkeys, whose cages could be submerged.
Jan Cervencl, 25, was helping to move goods out of a fitness equipment store where he works and was loading them into a van. "We will probably not be able to get all we need out," he said. "We found out about it too late."
Thousands of Czechs were already evacuated from the south, including the regional capital Ceske Budejovice, home to Czech Budweiser beer, and Cesky Krumlov, another popular tourist destination.
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