Soldiers and firefighters used sandbags to reinforce river embankments and delivered food and drinking water to cut-off communities as the worst flooding in years moved Tuesday across a broad swath of Central Europe,

By Barbara Erling WROCLAW, Poland (Reuters) -Flood defences in Poland's third-largest city Wroclaw looked to have held firm on Thursday, after the worst floods in at least two decades ravaged central Europe this week.

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

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's third-largest city Wroclaw was bracing for peaking flood waters on Thursday, with early indications its defences were holding firm, after the worst floods in at least two decades ravaged central Europe this week.

Soldiers and volunteers in southwestern Poland have been laying sandbags near swollen rivers around Wroclaw. Days of flooding have wreaked death and destruction across Central Europe.