Paris on high alert for floods as river Seine continues to swell

Floodwaters overflow the banks of the Seine river near the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Etienne Laurent / EPA

Workers pump water from the Javel railway station, flooded due to the high level of the Seine River in Paris. Ludovic Marin / AFP

Floodwaters overflow the banks of the Seine river near Notre Dame in Paris. Etienne Laurent / EPA

Men take pictures of a street lamp on the flooded banks of the River Seine in Paris, France, after days of almost non-stop rain caused flooding in the country. Christian Hartmann / Reuters

The flooded Ile aux Cygnes and banks of the river Seine with a model of the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower in the backround in Paris. Leaks were starting to appear on January 26 in the basements of Paris buildings as the Seine inched higher, with forecasters warning that the river could stay high throughout next wee. Ludovic Marin / AFP

The flooded banks of the river Seine and the Beaugrenelle area and Eiffel Tower in the backround in Paris. Ludovic Marin / AFP

A man looks at the flooded banks of the river Seine and the Beaugrenelle area and Eiffel Tower in the backround in Paris. Ludovic Marin / AFP

The flooded Ile aux Cygnes and banks of the river Seine with a model of the Statue of Liberty in Paris. Ludovic Marin / AFP

Paris was on high alert for flooding on Saturday as the swollen Seine continued to creep higher, with forecasters warning the river could stay high throughout next week.

Leaks started to appear in some basements on Friday, while some residents on the city's outskirts were forced to travel by boat through waterlogged streets.

The Louvre, Musee d'Orsay and Orangerie museums were on high alert, with the lower level of the Louvre's Islamic arts wing closed to visitors.

A health centre in the northwestern Parisian suburbs, where 86 patients were receiving care, had to be evacuated on Friday.

Over 650 people were also evacuated from their homes in the Paris region, according to police.

The Vigicrues flooding agency scaled back its peak predictions for the river in the capital, saying water levels would reach a maximum height of 5.8 to 6 metres between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, compared with the 6.2 metres it had previously predicted.

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But that would still bring the Seine four to five metres above its normal height, causing headaches for commuters as well as people living near its overflowing banks.

It was enough to worry Joao de Macedo, the janitor of a residential building in Paris's upscale 16th Arrondissement.

"There are six studios in the basement, and we've had to set up blocks outside to keep the windows from breaking and covering everything in water," he said.

Inside the studios, tables and dressers had been lifted off the floor as water seeped through the walls.

Outside, where the river was nearly lapping the tyres of parked vehicles, a young woman said it was "great to see ducks instead of cars".

The December-January period is now the third-wettest on record since data collection began in 1900, according to France's meteorological service.

All boat traffic on the Seine in Paris and upstream had been stopped, keeping tourists off the capital's famed sightseeing boats.

But forecasters said the rainfall in recent days had not been enough to push the Seine beyond their expectations.

"We've been reassured, it will keep the water level high but not increase it," said Francois Duquesne of the Vigicrues floods agency, though he warned of the risk for more rain next week.

"If it rains again from the middle of next week, something I'm not sure of at this point, we're not necessarily done with this yet," said Marc Mortureux, risk prevention director at the French environment ministry.

But even once the water levels start to recede, forecasters say it will be a slow process, since much of the ground in northern France is already waterlogged.

A main commuter line, the RER C, has halted service at Paris stops through Wednesday of next week, and some expressways that run alongside the Seine have been closed.

In Paris, the Seine flows through a deep channel, limiting the potential flooding damage to riverside structures.

But several areas on the outskirts of the capital were under water on Saturday, such as the southern suburb of Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, where some residents were getting around by boat and dozens had been evacuated from their homes.