As cars and homes lie abandoned, this was the scene of devastation today at Fischbeck in central Germany after the entire village became submerged when a dyke burst.
Unable to withstand pressure from the swollen river Elbe after weeks of heavy rain, the levee was breached overnight, prompting officials to evacuate ten villages in the area.
The torrential weather this spring has sent the Elbe, the Danube and other rivers such as the Vltava and the Saale overflowing their banks, causing extensive damage in central and southern Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary.
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This was the scene today at Fischbeck in central Germany after the entire village became submerged when a dyke burst (seen on the left)
Unable to withstand pressure from the swollen river Elbe after weeks of heavy rain, the levee was breached overnight - prompting officials to evacuate ten villages in the area
This aerial view shows floodwater gushing through the burst dyke in Fischbeck todayGermany's national railway said it had to close a bridge near Fischbeck that is used by trains linking Berlin to Cologne, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.
Some trains were being diverted via other bridges to the north and south, causing significant delays, and others were cancelled
A few miles upstream from Fischbeck, west of Berlin, around 8,000 people left their houses in the Saxony-Anhalt town of Stendal.
Cars lie abandoned in the central German village. The national railway said it had to close a bridge near Fischbeck that is used by trains linking Berlin to Cologne, Frankfurt and Amsterdam
Thousands of homes have been evacuated along the Elbe after waters threatened to break through levees protecting several other towns, as well as Fischbeck (above)
Military personnel, firefighters and volunteers have frantically been trying to build up flood defences along the Elbe with sandbags. Pictured above, the Fischbeck breachIn neighboring Schleswig-Holstein state, the old quarter of Lauenburg near Hamburg was evacuated due to the rising waters of the Elbe.
And in southern Germany, waters were receding and authorities began debating how to pay for the flood damage, estimated at more than 11billion euros (£9.4billion).
So far, the flooding in Europe has claimed at least 22 lives.
As the surge from the Elbe pushes into rural eastern Germany, there was some relief further upstream as the river slipped back from record levels in Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt state.
Talstrasse in Halle, southern Germany, after the city was flooded by water from the river Saale today
... and how the street looked five days ago
To the south, the Danube hit a record high on Sunday evening in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, but then began to ease back yesterday.
Officials said the city escaped significant damage, and Prime Minister Viktor Orban said soldiers and rescue workers would shift their focus further south.
The German city of Magdeburg grappled over the weekend with water levels more than 16ft (5m) above normal, but the Elbe retreated by about a foot yesterday.
More than 23,000 residents had to leave their homes on Sunday. Officials said an electricity substation in the city was no longer in danger of flooding -which would have made the situation worse by cutting off power to the drainage pumps.
The low-lying old district of Lauenburg, a riverside town east of Hamburg, was evacuated as authorities prepared for floodwaters to peak there later this week.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (second right) visited Wittenberge, on the Elbe, yesterday to get first-hand information of the flood situation and to thank the volunteers who are helping to battle the floods
Soldiers and volunteers have worked frantically over the past week to fill sandbags and reinforce flood defenses across central Europe.
Even with all those efforts, 'we should accept that we humans should be humble, that even in the 21st century we don't completely control nature - that is one lesson from this situation,' Saxony-Anhalt's interior minister, Holger Stahlknecht, told ZDF television.
He said it was too early to analyse what, if anything, might have been done to prepare better for flooding.
In Budapest, the Danube peaked late Sunday at about a foot above the previous record, set in 2006.
The Danube widens noticeably below Budapest, reducing the threat of flooding, although Orban said flood walls and other defences were being strengthened in several locations downriver.
River levels across the Czech Republic were falling yesterday, although thunderstorms during the night caused some local flash floods.
The national police chief, Martin Stovicek, said the country's death toll reached 11 after a Slovak man drowned in a river near the southwestern town of Susice.
The flood damage in Germany has been estimated at more than 11billion euros (£9.4billion)
A hovercraft boat drives in a flooded area by the river Elbe near Fischbeck today
Clouds reflect in the floods by the river Elbe near Tangermuende