Thousands of residents of Nysa, in southern Poland, formed a human chain overnight to pass each other sandbags, building a wall along a river embankment to keep the raging waters at bay.

In south-west Poland, communities were rallying on Tuesday morning to combat severe flooding threatening the town of Nysa. Located about 90 kilometres south of Wrocław, Nysa is at risk as the Nysa Kłodzka river nears the brink of breaching a crucial dyke protecting the town centre.

By Janis Laizans NYSA, Poland (Reuters) -Volunteers shored up defences to stem swollen rivers in the Polish city of Nysa on Tuesday, one of dozens of towns and cities across central Europe deluged by devastating floods that have killed at least 19 people.

Soldiers and residents in southwestern Poland are laying sandbags near swollen rivers around the city of Wroclaw to protect homes and businesses after days of flooding across Central Europe.

Residents describe how a human chain in this Polish town created a sandbag wall to fight floods:::: Nysa, Poland:: Grzegorz Grochowski, Local resident:: "You can see here the remaining sandbags, overnight people were carrying the sandbags.

Volunteers and emergency workers raced to secure river banks in Poland's historic city of Wroclaw on Tuesday, as nearby municipalities advised residents to evacuate and authorities across central Europe tallied the cost of floods that have wreaked havoc and killed at least 22 people.

Soldiers have dropped sandbags from military helicopters to reinforce river embankments and evacuated residents as the worst flooding in years spreads across Central Europe

By Janis Laizans and Radovan Stoklasa NYSA, Poland/OSTRAVA, Czech Republic (Reuters) -Poland's historic city of Wroclaw readied buses for possible evacuations on Tuesday and the zoo called for volunteers to protect animals from rising water as the death toll in three days of devastating floods across central Europe rose to 21.

Poland has declared a state of disaster in the area and set aside 1 billion zlotys ($260.38 million) for flood victims. Overnight, volunteers helped rescue workers heave sandbags to build up the broken embankment around Nysa,

Border areas between the Czech Republic and Poland were hit especially hard by floods over the weekend, with Romania and Austria also affected.