Romanian officials began a programme of controlled flooding, after the Danube reached its highest levels for more than a century, to prevent low-lying villages being submerged.

The floods have been caused by high rainfall and melting snow from the harsh Balkan winter. Hundreds of houses have been flooded in the region and thousands of people have been made homeless.

In Romania the waters flowed at a record rate of 15,900 cubic metres per second. The normal flow for this time of year is 7,900 cubic metres per second.

“We are going through an unprecedented situation. Romania has never had such water levels,” said Madalin Mihailovici, director of the Agency for Romanian Waters.

Tens of thousands of hectares of farmland have been deliberately submerged after Romanian officials breached a dam and declared the move an initial success.

“The water flow has fallen by 200 metres per second. This is a success,” said Beatrice Popescu of the Environment Ministry. The effort was aided by the collapse of a dam in southwest Romania, which flooded nearby farmland.

Officials have commandeered tractors, bulldozers and other vehicles, but efforts have been hampered by the legacy of last summer’s floods that caused widespread damage.

The Romanian-Serbian border region, where the Danube forms the frontier between the two countries, has been badly hit. In the Romanian town of Bazias, the heavy rains and melting snow triggered a flood that covered 5,000 hectares (12,400 acres) on the Danube’s northern bank.

In Serbia, officials declared a state of emergency in ten regions as all four of its rivers, the Danube, the Sava, the Tisa and the Tamis, rose to record levels. Thousands of troops were deployed to build up defences against the waters and stack sandbags along the riverbanks.

The Agriculture Ministry said that 223,000 hectares (550,000 acres) were under water. Parts of Belgrade, the capital, where the Danube meets the Sava, have been flooded for days, and telephones in riverside areas have stopped working. Officials made a public appeal for local people to help to reinforce collapsing embankments.

Officials in the town of Smederovo, 39km (24 miles) east of Belgrade, were directing a frantic attempt to build new riverbanks for the Danube using heavy construction equipment and deploying hundreds of volunteers to pile up sandbags after its fortress, port and train station were flooded. The Danube reached more than 8 metres (26ft) above its highest-ever level, flooding at least 300 houses and forcing their inhabitants to evacuate. Sirens wailed over the eastern town of Golubac after the river burst its banks and flooded the city centre.

Bulgarian officials called on elderly people, children and women to evacuate the northwestern city of Vidin after the Danube’s waters reached a record level of 9.4 metres. Schools and municipal offices were closed, while Ivan Tsenov, the mayor, said that all 50,000 inhabitants should be prepared to leave if necessary.

Bulgaria asked neighbouring Serbia and Romania to restrict the release of waters at the Iron Gates dam on the Danube for fear of inundating Vidin.

Across the region residents have been left without power, transport or drinking water.

Despite the floods, Belgrade’s famed nightlife continued. Srdan Jovanovic, the head of the city’s flood defence team, made an appeal to young women frequenting restaurants and clubs. He asked them to stop walking over the sandbags in their high-heeled shoes as they were puncturing the city’s flood defences.

THE DANUBE

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