Emergency services pulled seven bodies from flooded homes in Bosnia yesterday and soldiers rushed to free hundreds of people stranded in a school in Serbia during the worst floods to hit the Balkans in more than a century.

Witnesses in the town of Obrenovac, 18 miles southwest of the Serbian capital Belgrade - the area worst hit by days of heavy rainfall - estimated the water level at 6-7 feet. Residents stood on roofs waiting to be rescued, while soldiers in amphibious military vehicles tried to evacuate about 700 people from a primary school on higher ground.