Rain further batters storm-hit Portugal, thousands evacuated

COIMBRA (Reuters) - More heavy rain flooded several rural areas in the north of storm-battered Portugal on Wednesday, leaving levees at risk of bursting around the medieval city of Coimbra and forcing authorities to evacuate about 3,000 residents as a precaution.

"We are at the limit of our capacity to contain these waters. Everything that can be done is being done, including the most extreme preventive measure, the evacuation," Prime Minister Luis Montenegro told reporters on a bridge over the River Mondego in the Coimbra area.

A succession of deadly storms has hammered mostly central and southern parts of the country since late January, blowing roofs off houses, flooding several towns and leaving hundreds of thousands without electricity for days.

At least 15 people have died as a consequence of the storms, including indirect victims.

Montenegro was in Coimbra overseeing the emergency response after Interior Minister Maria Lucia Amaral resigned following criticism from opposition parties and local communities over what they described as the authorities' slow and failed response to devastating Storm Kristin two weeks ago.

As the storms let up this week, a weather phenomenon known as an "atmospheric river" - a wide corridor of concentrated water vapour carrying massive amounts of moisture from the tropics - brought new downpours, affecting the north to a greater extent.

RISK OF DAM OVERFLOWING

Municipal authorities in Coimbra ordered the precautionary evacuation of around 3,000 people most at risk from the river bursting its banks. The operation was still under way on Wednesday, with police making door-to-door checks and bussing residents to shelters.

Regional Civil Protection official Carlos Tavares said the situation could worsen between late Wednesday and midday Thursday, as the rain could cause the Aguieira dam, 35 km northeast of Coimbra, "to overflow, sweep away levees and trigger further flooding".

Portugal's environment agency APA expected an "exceptional period of peak flows" on the Mondego through Saturday.

Part of Coimbra's ancient city wall, on a hillside in one of Europe's oldest university towns and a UNESCO World Heritage site, collapsed, shutting the road below and forcing the closure of the municipal market, the city hall said.

In central Portugal, just across the River Tagus from Lisbon, authorities evacuated the village of Porto Brandao due to the risk of landslides. Around 30 people were removed from their homes after a landslide in the neighbouring beachside area of Caparica.