About 23,000 people left their homes in the city after losing power
At least 21 flood-related deaths have been reported in central Europe
River Danube has reached highest level in 500 years after days of rain
Thousands of volunteers are helping to shore up Budapest's flood defences
Tens of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes as the River Elbe burst through a dam and flooded parts of eastern Germany.
Today the Elbe breached another levee on its relentless march towards the North Sea, forcing Germany to evacuate ten villages and close one of the country's main railway routes.
Upstream there was some relief as the river slipped back from record levels in Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt state.
At least 21 flood-related deaths have been in reported in central Europe following a week of heavy rain, leading to rivers swelling and extensive damage.
Only the swimming pool of this garden in Magdeburg was visible as the River Elbe flooded the east German city
In east Germany, people walked through flooded streets in the Rothensee district of Magdeburg after the River Elbe burst its banks
The latest confirmed death was an 80-year-old man in Austria who died of a heart attack yesterday during the clean-up operation in the wake of floods.
Magdeburg had water levels more than 16ft above normal over the weekend, although the Elbe has now retreated by about a foot.
More than 23,000 people had to leave their homes in the city when the electricity was cut off and streets flooded.
But further downstream, a levee at Fischbeck, west of Berlin, was breached overnight, prompting officials to evacuate ten villages in the area.
Germany's national railway had to close a bridge near Fischbeck on the line from Berlin to Cologne, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.
Residents in the Rothensee neighbourhood of Magdeburg were evacuated with tanks, trucks and buses.
'Rothensee is filling up like a bathtub,' army spokesman Andre Sabzog told news agency dpa.
Around 700 soldiers were trying to build a dam of sandbags around a power substation to protect it from the Elbe.
If the substation floods, thousands of households would be left without water and it would lead to a breakdown of the neighborhood's dewatering pumps.
Another 8,000 people were evacuated from the town of Aken and its neighbouring villages after a dam on the Elbe river broke Saturday, police spokesman Uwe Holz said.
Further north on the Elbe river, residents were trying to protect themselves from flooding by building levees along the banks of the rising waterway.
Officials in Saxony-Anhalt state also were investigating what appeared to be a threat to destroy dams.
Several media outlets said they had received a letter threatening to blow up dams on the Elbe river, Holger Stahlknecht, the state's interior minister, said Sunday.
'We are taking the letter seriously,' he told dpa. He said authorities have stepped up their surveillance of dams and urged residents to remain calm.
Stahlknecht said: '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.'
He said it was too early to analyze what, if anything, might have been done to prepare better for flooding.
In Budapest the River Danube threatened to burst its banks as parts of the city's north and south were already underwater, but began to ease back overnight.
The city escaped significant damage, and Prime Minister Viktor Orban said soldiers and rescue workers would shift their focus further south.
The river peaked at record highs of nearly 30ft last night as desperate homeowners, hotel staff and military reservists piled sandbags in front of their buildings to protect the Hungarian capital.
More than 7,000 soldiers and volunteers laid out a million sandbags to strengthen flood defences on the river bank, where some flood walls stand at 30.5ft.
Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic have all been affected by the worst floods in central Europe in a decade.
The Danube - Europe's second longest river which flows through four capital cities and ten countries - started rising rapidly in Hungary last Friday.
The Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban said dykes had been strengthened at critical points in Budapest.
However, authorities have said that river defences designed to withstand floods would be high enough to protect the city.
'The flood is now approaching Budapest, the heart of the country,' Orban told reporters in Esztergom, which is 30 miles north of Budapest.
Twenty people reportedly have died in the floods across central Europe after several days of heavy rains
'In Budapest ... it is not simply the flood which is the problem ... but the complicated public works system through which all kinds of problems can arise.'
At least 1,400 people have been evacuated from towns and villages along the Danube and 44 roads have been closed. More than 200 people in Budapest had already left their homes.
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