In photos: Paris on high alert as the Seine river continues to swell

Paris is on a high alert as the water level of the Seine river is expected to reach about three times its normal level on Saturday. Many roads in the city are waterlogged after weeks of heavy rain, BBC reported.

The famous Louvre museum is moving its art treasures to safety and has shut down its lower level, which has the Islamic arts section. Hundreds of Parisians evacuated their homes, and roads and river traffic have been suspended for days. A train line that runs alongside the river has also stopped its services in one section.

The last two months have been the third-wettest on record, France’s national weather service said.

The water reached the mid-thigh of the Zouave, the statue of a Crimean soldier, on Friday – still lower than the neck level it reached in the 1910 floods, when submerged the city for two months. The statue is normally used to gauge water levels.

Paris’ rats have come out of the sewers – a rodent expert says France’s capital has 1.75 rats per human being. However, their sudden appearance “doesn’t mean there are more of them, only that we see them more often”, Pierre Falgayrac, the expert, told France 24.