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Thousands of people in the stricken regions remain without gas and electricity supplies, the main suppliers RWE and ČEZ confirmed on Monday, saying it could take days to restore heat and power to all households, depending on the extent of damage in different areas. Several of the worst hit areas where electricity poles came down, will require putting up new electricity lines. Emergency generators are in place where possible.

A British court has sent a Czech national to six years in jail for a brutal attack on a two-year-old. The man, living in Cardiff with his girlfriend, attacked her two-year-old daughter after she refused to marry him. He allegedly grabbed the child, who was asleep in her cot, and twice smashed her against the wall. A doctor who treated the child said it was the worst case of abuse she had ever encountered and it was a miracle the child had survived the attack.

In a separate set of data, the Czech Statistical Office said that inflation accelerated to a 12-month figure of 1.9 percent in July, the highest since March 2009. From June to July, consumer prices rose by 0.3 percent, pushed up by an increase in holiday prices, statisticians said. The Czech economy, heavily dependent on car production, contracted by 4.1 percent last year, posting the first annual decline in gross domestic product (GDP) since 1998. The central bank expects a recovery this year, with annual GDP growth reaching 1.6 percent.

At least three people drowned in flash floods which hit northern areas of the Czech Republic on Saturday, police and rescue officials have said. The floods struck primarily in the region of Liberec and the neighboring Ústí nad Labem which declared a state of emergency. Among those who died in the floods was an elderly man trapped in his home in Dolní Libchava near Česká Lípa. Officials expect the final toll could be higher, as three people remain missing - including a man who was last seen falling into raging waters.

Along with the toll in lives, floodwaters on Saturday caused untold damage to property and infrastructure, grinding through asphalt roads and railway lines, sweeping away cars, and damaging or destroying personal homes. Around 2,000 people were evacuated from their homes by rescue workers and military personnel called in to deal with the calamity.

Some 700 professional as well as voluntary fire fighters worked around the clock together with the army, which supplied military and police helicopters for rescue missions, as well as heavy machinery and two amphibious vehicles. Both the head of the General Staff, Vlastimil Picek, and Defence Minister Alexandr Vondra flew to flood-stricken areas to assess the damage.