Hundreds of people fled their flood-threatened homes across Central Europe with many more on standby for evacuation as the levels of some rivers continued to rise yesterday.

The floods apparently claimed a fifth victim in the Czech Republic and neighbouring Slovakia, after a 55-year-old homeless man was discovered dead near the eastern Czech town of Zabreh.

"The man was one of the town's homeless," said Zabreh deputy mayor Milan Kratochvil.

In Germany, around 300 people were evacuated from their homes in Saxony's main city, Dresden, on Friday night as the rising Elbe threatened to flood the historic centre.

In the Czech capital, the natural threat from the Vltava river stabilised yesterday, but a different threat emerged.

Prague police disturbed two men in the centre of the city on Friday night trying to dismantle part of the city's aluminium flood barrier, apparently for its scrap metal value.

City leaders demanded that the one man caught face exemplary punishment.

Rain and melting snow raised the flood risk in the east and centre of the country. Many inhabitants of the historic eastern city of Olomouc ignored appeals from local authorities to quit their homes in the early hours of Saturday.

About 1,800 people in the most-threatened parts of the city were advised to evacuate their homes shortly after midnight. "Only about 60 people have been evacuated," city spokesman Martin Hala said.

Regional governor Ivan Kosatik said a state of emergency was declared late Friday for the 100,000 inhabitants of Olomouc and its surrounding area and the town of Litovel.

The Pardubice region, in the east of the country, followed suit yesterday afternoon. In a news release, the region said a handful of locations at the foot of the Orlicke mountains were threatened by Ticha Orlice river and local councils were unable to cope with the danger.

The Elbe continued to rise, with the situation critical around Melnik, around 30km north of Prague. The head of the Central Czech region, Petr Bendl, said that 2,000 people might have to be evacuated from the town, where the Elbe and Vltava rivers meet.

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