Paris remains on high alert as the Seine continues to swell and the Louvre prepares to close its doors amid the third-wettest French winter in over a century.    

The river had risen 4.3in over a period of 24 hours by Saturday evening, more than 13ft above its normal height, causing problems for commuters as well as people living near its overflowing banks.

Tourists suffered too with the capital's famous Bateaux Mouches rivercraft out of service, and only emergency services authorised to navigate the Seine.

The Vigicrues flooding agency believe the river will continue to rise, peaking at 13.1ft on Sunday night or Monday, but not quite reaching the 2016 high of 20ft, when the Louvre museum was forced to close its doors for four days.

But the world's most visited museum was on high alert on Saturday, along with the Musee d'Orsay and Orangerie galleries, with the lower level of the Louvre's Islamic arts wing closed to visitors.

Leaks started to appear in some basements in Paris on Friday, while some residents on the city's outskirts were forced to travel by boat through waterlogged streets.

A health centre in Paris's northwestern suburbs, where 86 patients were receiving care, was also evacuated on Friday.

In total around 1,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in the greater Paris region, according to police, while around 1,500 homes were without electricity.

'Due to the spread of flooding to different tributaries, the level of the Seine in Paris will continue rising again on the weekend,' said Vigicrues, adding that the highest level would last for about 10 hours before slowly going down.

The extent of the rising water levels was evident from the Seine lapping half way up the Zouave statue of a Crimean soldier on the Pont de l'Alma bridge.

It was enough to worry Joao de Macedo, janitor at a residential building in Paris's upscale 16th Arrondissement.

'There are six studios in the basement, and we've had to set up blocks outside to keep the windows from breaking and covering everything in water,' he said.

Inside the studios, tables and dressers have been lifted off the floor as water seeps through the walls.

But even once the water levels start to recede, forecasters and officials say it will be a slow process, since much of the ground in northern France is already waterlogged.

'If we're talking about things going completely back to normal, that's going to take weeks,' said Jerome Goellner, regional head of environmental services.

A main commuter line, the RER C, has halted service at Paris stops until Wednesday, and some expressways that run alongside the Seine have been closed.

Cc lalasticlala
Mynd44

Hmmmmm, this is serious magana

It seems this ozone depletion and Antarctica ice split abi na global warming is rearing its ugly head again oooo