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Countries across central and eastern Europe are on high alert for more bad weather, after the region was hit with record levels of rainfall.

The extreme weather has caused widespread flooding in countries including Poland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania.

Thousands of residents have been evacuated from their homes and flood water has damaged buildings.

Many areas have been declared in a state of natural disaster and thousands of people are without power.

Since Thursday, many parts of central and eastern Europe have been hit by Storm Boris, which brought high winds and unusually heavy rainfall.

Austria has seen high volumes of rainfall and flooding, with the country's leaders calling it an "extreme" situation.

The area surrounding the capital Vienna has been declared a disaster area.

Multiple trains have been cancelled, parts of the Vienna underground have been closed, and at least one motorway has flooded.

In a post online, Austria‘s Chancellor Karl Nehammer said the storm situation had "worsened" and was "very serious".

Some of the highest rainfall totals so far have been in the Czech Republic, where some areas have seen around three months' of rain in just three days.

Flooding has led to evacuations and 51,000 households in the country's northern areas have been hit by power outages.

Flood barriers have also gone up in the county's capital, Prague.

Environment Minister Petr Hladik asked those in the worst-hit areas to prepare to leave their homes.

The floods caused by Storm Boris have affected eight counties in Romania, with the south-eastern region of Galati seeing some of the worst of the weather.

Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu visited the area where around 5,000 homes have been damaged and 15,000 people are still without power.

Poland's prime minister Donald Tusk declared a state of natural disaster.

In the Polish town of Stonie Slaski, a dam has burst, which would usually control the flow of water across a waterway. In the same town, a bridge has collapsed and homes have been badly damaged.

While in Krakow, Poland's second largest city, residents have been offered sandbags for flood protection.

Polish authorities have called in the army to help support emergency workers on the scene.

Weather forecasters say conditions will improve but because of the enormous amount of rain that has fallen, it will take many days for the water to drain away.

Weather forecasters say more wet weather is expected in the whole region until at least the end of Monday.