Hoge Donaustand zorgt voor overstromingen in Servië, Roemenië en Bulgarije (en)

Flooding in EU candidates Romania and Bulgaria is set to peak on Wednesday (19 April) and Thursday, local authorities predict, with the lower reaches of the river Danube staying abnormally swollen for up to a month.

The Danube is currently flowing at 15,800 cubic metres a second - twice the usual for April and the heaviest since 1895 - inundating farmland and villages but with no casualties so far, press agecies say.

Over 3,000 people fled the Romanian villages of Rast and Negoi after Dykes burst on Monday. Police also evacuated tourists from a hotel in the southern town of Calarasi.

About 100,000 hectares of Romanian farms and forests have been submerged, with authorities planning to channel water away from towns toward a further 26,000 hectares of open land.

In Bulgaria, almost half of the industrial town of Nikopol has been flooded with problems also reported in Vidin, Fetesti, Ruse and Zabovanovo.

"The biggest worry now is the inflow of mosquitoes and the stink of sewage coming from the flooded houses," Nikopol civil defense head Georgi Linkov told Reuters.

The floods first hit Serbia over the weekend after melting snows and spring rains in central Europe.

Most of Belgrade has been kept safe by 250 km of dykes and barriers but the waterlogged defences are in danger of collapse.

The Serb towns of Ritopek, Veliko Gradiste and Smederevo have also tried to keep the river at bay with sandbags and basic equipment.

"The volunteers are tired. It's hard to keep up the tempo day after day," one Serbian official indicated.

The water levels are higher than during the floods of 2005 and 2002, which killed dozens, but response units were better prepared this time around, BBC correspondents say.