Hungary braces for surging floodwater

Preparing for the worst - residents in the Hungarian village of Mecser hope these sandbags will save the town from rising flood waters in the River Danube.

Some 600 residents and a few hundred volunteers worked to reinforce the riverbanks near the village on Saturday.

A state of emergency has been declared in Hungary with the worst situation in and around the capital Budapest.

Mescer is some 150 kilometers west of Budapest.

Some residents remained optimistic however.

(SOUNDBITE) (Hungarian) MECSER RESIDENT, ZSOLT NAGY, SAYING:

"This village was flooded completely in 1954, including the house where I was born. Now the level of water is almost the same as it was then, but the dams are in much better conditions, and we started defence on time, so I hope we will have success."

There were similar scenes in northern Germany where residents in the town of Magdeburg were also bracing themselves for the deluge.

Large parts of the east of the count