STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Heavy rain and rising lakes and rivers are threatening parts of Stockholm as Sweden suffers some of its worst flooding in 100 years.
With more rain forecast for the weekend, Stockholm county security officer Alf Axlid said: "We're looking at all the weak points. Fortunately it looks as if the floods won't peak until next week."
The authorities fear torrents of water from the Malaren lake and river system could flood the capital's low-lying mediaeval Gamla Stan island and other chic waterside areas.
While the capital was expected to escape serious flooding at the weekend, operators of the Stockholm underground railway were preparing to close parts of the network if waters rose more than expected.
Rescue workers shored up dykes, pumped out flooded streets and evacuated elderly residents in the worst-hit town of Arvika, in western Sweden, on Friday as the Glafsfjorden lake rose more than three metres (10 feet) above normal.
Meteorologists said flooding would peak early next week as rainwater poured down from the Norwegian mountains into Lake Vanern in the west, swamping thousands of acres of farmland and lapping at homes and factories.
Several other small towns around Vanern were also threatened, including Karlstad, Mariestad, Lidkoping and Amal.
In Arvika, emergency workers shovelled and pumped thousands of gallons of water from the town's flooded streets back over improvised dykes into the lake, watched by Sweden's King Carl Gustaf who visited the region on Friday.
"The situation will get worse than this, especially around Vanern," Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) hydrologist Martin Haggstrom said.
"The problem is that Vanern is a very big lake and the inflow is twice as much as the outflow."
Sweden's state-controlled utility Vattenfall has been forced to sluice an unprecedented 1,000 cubic metres of water per second into the Gota canal system towards Gothenburg.
"They can't increase it any more because there is a great risk of landslides if they do," Haggstrom said, predicting many rivers and lakes would keep rising for the rest of the year and stay swollen until next spring or summer.
All lakes and rivers in central Sweden have reached dangerous levels, with more rain on the way. The worst impact will come later as water funnels from streams and rivers into the lake networks, experts said.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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