Daring helicopter rescue of firefighters stranded on truck swallowed by floods
This is the dramatic moment a fire crew stranded on the roof of their truck had to be rescued by a helicopter as Storm Boris continued to tear through the Czech Republic.
Footage showed the vehicle being overtaken by water in the town of Krnov, on the border with Poland, during what has been described as the flooding of the century.
The firefighters had been dispatched to help people affected by the floods when they became trapped themselves.
With the deluge of water continuing to rise and no safe route out, a helicopter was deployed to rescue them.
Hovering above the stranded crew, a team inside the aircraft lowered a harness, carefully lifting each firefighter from atop the truck’s roof.
Krnov was almost completely submerged on Sunday as its two rivers, Opava and Opavice, rose to record levels.
(Picture: EPA)
Police said the body of a woman was found in the water in the town, while two men drowned in the northeast of the Czech Republic.
Authorities declared an emergency in two northeastern regions, including in the Jeseniky mountains near the Polish border.
A number of towns and cities had been entirely submerged in the northeast, with thousands of residents evacuated.
Military helicopters joined rescuers on boats to transport people to safety in the wake of the storm.
Czech prime minister Petr Fiala visited the town of Jesenik, one of the hardest hit places.
‘The worst is behind us and now, we have to deal with all the damage,’ he said following the visit.
Waters were receding from the mountainous areas on Monday, leaving behind destroyed houses and bridges and damaged roads.
But the has rain resumed and is now expected to last until Wednesday in some areas.
Elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe, the water has swamped parts of Austria, Poland and Romania as a low-pressure system crossing the region has unleashed record-high rains for days.
It is expected that the rainfall will affect Slovakia and Hungary later in the week.
So far 16 people have been reported killed – seven people in Romania, five in Poland, three in the Czech Republic and one in Austria.
In Poland, prime minister Donald Tusk held an emergency meeting and declared a disaster in flooded areas, a government measure to facilitate evacuation and rescues.
The flooding has burst dams and embankments while receding waters left streets covered in piles of debris and mud.
It prompted a hospital in the southwestern Polish city of Nysa to evacuate about 40 patients.
Schools and offices in the affected areas were closed Monday and drinking water and food were being delivered by trucks.
Many Polish cities, including Warsaw, have called for food donations for flood survivors.
Experts warned of flood threats due to the cresting Oder River in Opole, a city of some 130,000 residents, and Wroclaw, home to about 640,000 residents and where disastrous flooding happened in 1997.
Firefighters in southwestern Poland said flood victims included a surgeon whose body was found Monday morning in Nysa after he returned from hospital duty.
The bodies of two women and two other men have been found in other parts of the region.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.