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Dozens are killed as floods and fires rage across Europe

BERN, Switzerland - Rescue workers completed an airlift evacuation of a half-submerged riverside district of the Swiss capital Thursday as large parts of central and southern Europe were hit by flooding that killed at least 42 people.

Hardest hit was Romania with 31 victims, many of whom were trapped inside their homes and drowned as torrents of water rushed in. Austria, Bulgaria, Germany and Switzerland reported a total of 11 dead, but numbers were expected to climb as more bodies of the missing are recovered.

Across the Alps, military helicopters were ferrying supplies to valleys cut off by flooding and evacuating stranded tourists - and even cows - isolated in mountain pastures by the rising waters.

"Lots of people have lost their whole existence," said fire service chief Franz Bachmann, who led the evacuation operation.

In Germany, the Danube flooded part of the southeastern town of Kelheim, including its Weltenburg Monastery, founded in the 7th century and described as the oldest in Bavaria.

Fire and floods have engulfed Europe this summer. A relentless drought in Spain and Portugal transformed swaths of woodland into a massive tinderbox while torrential rains carved a trail of destruction through picturesque European cities, Alpine valleys and Balkan villages.

Blazes in Portugal have killed 15 people, destroyed farmland, and forced hundreds to be evacuated.

Dale Mohler, the director of international forecasting at AccuWeather.com, said heat waves like the one that has scorched Portugal and Spain have occurred every 15 to 20 years. And the floods in central and southern Europe are not that unusual either.

"Is the world coming to an end? No - at least not today or tomorrow," Mohler said.

Fire has burned through other parts of southern Europe in recent days. In Spain, enduring its driest year since records were first kept in the 1940s, dozens of fires were burning in the northwest Galicia region and other areas.

In Italy, smaller fires were burning in Sicily and Puglia.

[Last modified August 26, 2005, 01:37:18]