Soldiers have dropped sandbags from military helicopters to reinforce river embankments and evacuated residents as the worst flooding in years spreads across Central Europe

There have been at least 16 deaths reported in the flooding, which has affected areas such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria

Poland's third-largest city Wroclaw was bracing for peaking flood waters on Thursday, with early indications its defences were holding firm, after the worst floods in at least two decades ravaged central Europe this week.

Soldiers and volunteers in southwestern Poland have been laying sandbags near swollen rivers around Wroclaw. Days of flooding have wreaked death and destruction across Central Europe.