Beavers responsible for Poland floods

Beavers are partly to blame for the devastating floods that have swept Poland, killing 15 people ,because the animals tunnel through vital defences protecting the cities, the interior minister has said.

"The greatest enemy of the flood defences is an animal called the beaver. They live everywhere along the levees on the Vistula (river) and cause a lot of damage to them," Jerzy Miller said.

An estimated 50,000 of the large, mostly nocturnal, semi-aquatic rodents live in Poland where they enjoy a degree of protection, animal welfare services say.

However, local authorities have upped hunting quotas for the animals in the wake of the floods.

"Beavers dig tunnels in the flood defences, weakening them from inside. But they are not alone, there are also water voles," Pawel Fratczak, Poland's national fire brigade spokesman said.

Torrential rain in Poland's mountainous south have caused rivers, including the Vistula, Poland's largest, swell to levels unseen in more than a century.