Helicopters ferried food to an Alpine resort yesterday and plucked people from roofs in the capital Berne as flood-ravaged Switzerland braced for more rain.

In Romania, one of the countries worst hit by the downpours that lashed parts of central Europe earlier this week, the death toll from flooding rose by six to 31 yesterday, with another three people missing, including a four-year-old girl. The torrential rains forced lakes and rivers to burst their banks from Berne to Bucharest, cutting roads, power and communications to hundreds of communities and causing damage estimated at worth well over $1 billion in Switzerland alone.

In Berne, helicopters lifted residents from roofs and balconies of their homes in the oldest part of town where they were trapped by the waters. Officials fear centuries-old buildings could be swept away.

In Lucerne sandbags protected shops and homes and residents watched anxiously as the river Reuss rushed perilously close beneath the city?s covered 14th-century wooden bridge ? a national landmark.

?Right now the water level is falling, but we just do not know what is going to happen next,? civil protection official Rene Bieri told Reuters. Forecasters said the weather could get worse with a further 20-30 millimetres (around an inch) of rain expected later in the week over Switzerland. Driftwood has been swept into lakes and rivers and now threatens to smash bridges and other installations, rescue officials said.

The Swiss army was using Puma helicopters to supply the scenic mountain resort of Engelberg, which has been cut off since Monday by rain which also sent part of the railway line plunging down a ravine.

One of 700 tourists evacuated by air on Wednesday from the village told Swiss television they had been without hot food, clean water and electricity. Not all tourists were unhappy. ?It was like a carnival here last night, with everybody crowding the streets,? said Australian Ray Condon as he squeezed along a wooden walkway in Lucerne. ?Everybody was out taking pictures.?

But the Swiss authorities have warned sightseers to stay away from the waters, worried about a sudden rise in river levels or more flash floods.

In southern Germany, a 28-year-old man drowned when he ventured out with two friends in a dinghy which capsized on the River Mangfall near the town of Feldkirchen-Westerham. He was the first person to die in Germany in the floods, which have turned regions of Bavaria into disaster zones. The other two men were rescued in the incident late on Wednesday.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, interrupting his campaign schedule for parliamentary elections in just over three weeks, was visiting regions hit by the floods yesterday. Bavarian authorities said the crisis had eased in several areas but the situation remained critical along parts of the River Danube.

In Romania, the latest deaths were from the Transylvanian region of Harghita. ?I lost everything,? a young villager told Realitatea TV station. ?I saw floodwaters carry away a big bus parked near my home.?

Floods across the country have killed 67 so far this year. The government estimates the damage as worth 1.5 billion euros.

Eight people have died and thousands were evacuated from their homes in Switzerland and Austria, where the toll rose to four yesterday when searchers found the body of an 81-year-old man missing since his car tumbled into a swollen river.

Austrian crews were using heavy equipment to clear away tons of mud, gravel and rocks dumped inside hundreds of homes, hotels and businesses in mountain valleys in Vorarlberg and neighbouring Tyrol province.

?You feel like you have fallen into a deep hole,? homeowner Hubert Brunner told the Austrian newspaper Tiroler Tageszeitung about losing his house, ripped apart by water and rocks when the neighbouring river flooded.

Pilar WOLFSTELLER