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.

Heavy rains caused severe flooding in Central Europe, affecting countries like Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Romania.

A storm system that has wreaked havoc across central Europe brought devastating floods to the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna on Thursday for the second year in a row, forcing people to leave their homes and schools to close.