"I lost everything. My pigs drowned and I couldn't rescue them after my house crumbled in the water," said an elderly peasant from Otelec, where floods were two metres deep.

Up to 2,000 people, mostly from Timis county at the border with Serbia and Montenegro, were displaced to temporary shelters on nearby highlands. They are likely to stay there until at least Sunday, the Orthodox Easter.

But TV reports said many were risking their lives to defend saturated homes from looters by taking refuge in their lofts, which were liable to collapse at any moment.

In the city of Arad, near the border with Hungary, apartment blocks and streets were flooded, with stranded residents forced to use dinghies for transport.

The Environment Ministry said the floods were partly caused by broken 300-year-old dams on the Timis river but that waters were now beginning to ebb.

"There's no one else awaiting evacuation and the situation is improving as meteorologists predict no rains for the next week," said ministry official Olga Lefter.

Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu, who visited the flood-affected areas, said the government would rebuild destroyed houses with materials from the state reserves. The houses are expected to be ready by the winter.

The government has allocated 500 billion lei ($18 million) to repair the collapsed railway infrastructure and 280 billion for the dams. Some 30 billion will also go towards vaccines to prevent epidemics spreading, emergency food and basic supplies.

"We will also hold talks with the World Bank for a loan of 49 million euros, for safety works along rivers in the counties hit by floods," Environment Minister Sulfina Barbu told state news agency Rompres.