Germans evacuated after river Elbe breaches its banks again The river Elbe sweeps through Magdeburg, eastern Germany, where 15,000 residents have been asked to leave their homes. Photograph: Ronny Hartmann/AFP/Getty The swollen river Elbe has breached its banks again on its relentless march toward the North Sea, forcing German authorities to evacuate 10 villages and shut one of the main railway routes. As the surge from the Elbe pushed into rural eastern Germany, there was some relief upstream as the river receded from record levels in Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt state. To the south, the Danube hit a record high in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, on Sunday evening, then began to ease back on Monday. Officials said the city had escaped significant damage, and the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, said soldiers and rescue workers would shift their focus further south. Weeks of heavy rain have left the Elbe, the Danube and other rivers such as the Vltava and the Saale overflowing their banks, causing extensive damage in central and southern Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary. At least 21 flood-related deaths have been reported. Magdeburg grappled with water levels of more than 16ft (five metres) above normal, though the Elbe retreated by about a foot. More than 23,000 residents had to leave their homes on Sunday, but officials said an electricity substation in the city was no longer in danger of flooding, which would have made the situation worse by cutting off power to the drainage pumps. The swollen Danube river flooded the A3 Autobahn in Deggendorf. But further downstream, a bank at Fischbeck, west of Berlin, was breached overnight, prompting officials to evacuate 10 villages in the area. Germany's national railway said it had to close a bridge near Fischbeck used by trains linking Berlin to Cologne, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. It said some trains were being diverted to other bridges to the north and south, causing significant delays, and others had been cancelled. Soldiers and volunteers have worked frantically over the past week to fill sandbags and reinforce flood defences across central Europe. Saxony-Anhalt's interior minister, Holger Stahlknecht, told ZDF television: "We should accept that we humans should be humble, that even in the 21st century we don't completely control nature - that is one lesson from this situation." He added that it was too early to analyse what, if anything, might have been done to prepare better for flooding. In Budapest, the Danube peaked at about a foot above the previous record, set in 2006. "The capital city has pulled through the crest of the flood," Orbán said while inspecting areas close to the Danube in northern Budapest. The river widens noticeably below Budapest, reducing the threat of flooding, although the prime minister said flood walls and other defences were being strengthened in several locations downriver.