Heavy rain lashed Alpine regions of Austria and left parts of Vienna under water at the weekend, causing severe damage in parts of the country and disrupting road and rail transport, authorities and local media said.
Torrents of muddy water swept cars through the ski resort of St. Anton in western Austria, footage posted on social media showed. Meanwhile record rainfall hit parts of Vienna in the east of the country, state broadcaster ORF said.
A woman was dragged under a bus by the force of flooding in the Doebling area in the north of the city on Saturday, ORF said. She was taken to hospital in a critical condition, it added.
Fire services in the capital were called out more than 450 times on Saturday as the downpours caused traffic chaos and disrupted rail transport, according to ORF.
“Heavy storms have done great damage in many parts of Austria,” Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said on X, thanking officials who were working to clear up the damage.
In Vienna’s Doebling district, officials registered 110 litres of rain per sqm, which ORF Vienna meteorologist Kevin Hebenstreit said was a record for August rainfall in the city.
Vienna recorded a large proportion of its average summer rainfall in just one hour on Saturday, according to weather data firm UBIMET.
On average, in August it rains a total of 68 litres per sqm, with the all-time record being 139 litres on May 15, 1885, according to ORF.