The entire course of the Danube in Austria has been closed to shipping due to flooding caused by heavy rainfall in the country, and in neighbouring southern Germany.
The state waterway company, via donau, announced the closure on Tuesday. "Safety cannot be guaranteed above a certain water level," Christoph Caspar, spokesman for via donau, told dpa. How long the measure will remain in force depends on further rainfall and the water levels in the Danube's tributaries.
The Danube flows over 350 kilometres through Austria, from the Bavarian border city of Passau to the Slovakian capital Bratislava, also on the border.
The closure forced some cruise ships to dock in Linz, where the Danube burst its banks on Tuesday. Some roads were also closed. In Schärding, which lies on the river Inn, a tributary of the Danube, defences were increased to prevent major flooding.
As water levels on the Bavarian Danube across the border in Germany continued to rise, slight increases were also recorded on the Upper Austrian Danube, the Hydrographic Service of Upper Austria reported on Tuesday afternoon. Overall, however, the experts expected the situation to ease soon.
