[An Nahar] Paris' world-famous Louvre and Orsay museums shut on Friday to retrieve priceless artworks from their basements, as the swollen River Seine neared its highest level in three decades.At least 14 people have been killed in floods that have wrought havoc in Europe after days of torrential rain, trapping people in their homes and forcing rescuers to row lifeboats down streets turned into rivers.
Parisians were urged to stay away from the Seine, which has burst its banks in places and rose more than six meters (19ft 8ins) above its normal level on Friday.
Authorities said the river could swell to "perhaps 6.5 meters (21 feet) in a worst-case scenario," comfortably beating the level reached during floods in 1982.
| Update from An Nahar at 12:30 pm ET: |
| Floods across Europe, heat wave in the Middle East... here's hoping those with an interest in such things will be too busy to heed ISIS' call for turning Ramadan into a month of jihad. |