The weather caused disruption in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Serbia with fresh storms expected in many areas of central and southeastern Europe that have already been hit by a harsh winter.

In southern Poland, officials said three people died -- a man swept away while walking next to a river with his son; a 45-year-old man who drowned while returning from a shop; and a woman aged 60 who went missing Sunday.

A volunteer firefighter also died of a heart attack during a sandbagging operation to halt flood waters after days of rain, national fire brigade spokesman Pawel Fratczak said.

About 2,000 people were being evacuated in the Krakow region, said Fratczak, while houses, roads and railways between Krakow and the southern mountain resort of Zakopane were under water.

The former Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau was closed to visitors Monday and staff were scrambling as flood waters swelled the nearby River Sola.

"The archives, documents and all the materials at ground level are currently being taken up to the next floor," Jaroslaw Mensfelt, spokesman for the state-run Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, told AFP.

Auschwitz-Birkenau was set up in 1940 by Poland's Nazi occupiers. One million of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust were murdered there.

In the neighbouring Czech Republic a 69-year-old woman drowned in a brook that had burst its banks, as the government prepared to mobilise troops to help as water levels rose to the highest in decades.

"Many places are facing a critical situation," regional governor Jaroslav Palas said. "I have agreed with (Defence Minister) Martin Bartak that he will send the army to the region if necessary."

Hundreds of people were evacuated, including 90 hospital patients in the town of Bohumin, while more than 10,000 households were left without power.

Many roads and railways were closed amid heavy rainfall expected to last till Wednesday.

Flooding in the Czech republic last year claimed 14 lives.

In neighbouring Slovakia the highest flood alert was declared in the eastern district of Trebisov, where rivers flooded dozens of houses and 150 people from a Roma settlement had to be evacuated.

Up to 3,700 soldiers were standing by to step in if the situation worsened, Defence Minister Jaroslav Baska said after an emergency government meeting.

In southern Serbia flash floods killed two people and flooded dozens of houses, Beta news agency reported.

About 300 people were evacuated after the river Pcinja burst its banks late Saturday, destroying nearly 100 metres (330 feet) of a concrete wall built to protect the town of Trgoviste, local television said.

Trgoviste was without drinking water and electricity.

In Hungary more than 2,000 people were evacuated from their homes, mostly in the northeast, said Gyorgy Szentes, a spokesman for the National Disaster Authority, Gyorgy Szentes.

Areas north of Budapest were also hit by heavy storms that also uprooted trees with winds of up to 110 kilometres (65 miles) per hour.

Road and rail traffic was disrupted, with motorways partly under water and railtracks blocked by fallen trees.

Further storms were expected on Monday, the national meteorological service said.

burs-dk/rom

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