Mayor of Warsaw Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz has said that the situation in Warsaw was becoming serious as water in the Vistula river reach critical levels.

At a special press conference today, Warsaw authorities informed that the water level on the Vistula continued to rise, although the biggest danger is from increasingly saturated and leaking dykes.

Today water on the Vistula is expected to reach 780 cm.

So far, however, there has been no need to close any of Warsaw’s bridges. Some open-air events have been postponed in lower-lying parts of the city. Warsaw authorities have also warned that police will issue stiff fines to unauthorised people walking on dykes.

Zoo threatened

A particularly difficult situation is being faced by Warsaw Zoo on the eastern bank of the river, which could be one of the first places flooded. Varsovians pooled forces with firemen to secure the zoo perimeter with sandbags.  Director of the Warsaw Zoo Andrzej Kruszewicz said that the zoo’s animals were being given sedatives.

“We are ready to move wolves, leopards and wild dogs because they would react nervously to circumstances,” he told Polish Radio. “But there is no threat at the moment; the zoo is functioning normally.”

Director Kruszewicz also said that as a last resort zoo staff were prepared to shoot animals if they panicked and became impossible to control. He added that this was an extreme solution.

The flood wave running north on the Vistula should reach Płock by this evening, says the metrological office. (ek/pg)