At least 21 people are now said to have been killed in floods that swept Russia's Black Sea coast, an area popular with holiday makers.

Torrential rains have submerged villages and swept cars and holiday homes out into the sea.

Authorities in the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk declared a state of emergency on Thursday.

Rescue work is continuing in the flood area, where teams are hunting for at least six people feared swept away.

Storm warnings were still in force across the region, with more rains feared later in the day.

Correspondents say residents are furious that they were neither warned about the impending floods, nor offered help after they had struck.

Emergency Ministry officials in Moscow say 90 houses have been flooded, and some 600 people from around the port have been evacuated.

The rain caused rivers and lakes to burst their banks swept away homes and bridges, as well as cutting off power and rail links, leaving hundreds stranded.

On Thursday, the head of the ministry's press service said no holidaymakers had been hurt when a wall of water swept through campsites as earlier reported by some media.

Other weather flashpoints in Europe include:

• Romania: two people are reported to have died and flood waters have cut off several roads

• Czech Republic: rivers burst their banks in southern Bohemia, killing at least two people and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people from their homes. Czech officials say water levels are their highest for 100 years

• Austria: rising waters isolate several towns and wash away bridges, in what local officials are calling the worst flooding since records began in 1896

• Bulgaria: flooding leaves dozens of villages without electricity and state radio reports two farmers killed by lightning
  

Southern Russia has been hit hard by flooding in recent weeks.

Heavy rains in July left more than 100 people dead, and forced hundreds of thousands more to evacuate their homes.