Death toll rises to 11 in fierce eastern European storm

Garden equipment in front of a flooded residential house in Atzenbrugg im Tullnerfeld, Austria, on September 16, 2024. [AFP]

The death toll has risen to 11 in the powerful storm that unleashed flooding in eastern and central Europe, authorities said Monday after additional victims were reported in Austria and the Czech Republic.

Since Thursday, swathes of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia have been hit by high winds and unusually heavy rainfall.

"Two people, aged 70 and 80, were found dead in their homes during the night from Sunday to Monday" in the Lower Austria region bordering the Czech Republic, police told AFP on Monday.

The two people were killed in two different villages by rising water levels in their homes, police added.

In the Czech Republic, authorities told a radio station that one person drowned in a stream close to Bruntal in the northeast, while seven people were recorded missing.

Eleven people have now died across eastern and central Europe as a result of the storm, several more are missing and millions have been evacuated from their homes.

Over the weekend, six people died and one went missing in Romania, a seventh person drowned in Poland and a firefighter was killed in Austria during a flood rescue operation.