Serbia has ordered the evacuation of at least 12 towns situated along the Sava river after a fresh surge of floodwaters wreaked havoc and forced more people to flee their homes across the Balkan region. At least 47 people have died after the region's worst rainfall in more than a century inundated large swathes of Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia in recent days and unleashed more than 3,000 landslides that swept away homes and unearthed land mines from the region's 1992-95 war. The fresh evacuation orders included one for the town of Obrenovac, where soldiers, police and volunteers worked around the clock to protect the coal-fired Nikola Tesla power plant. Hundreds of people in the country were evacuated by helicopters and buses, joining about 7,800 residents already forced from their homes since Friday. Hundreds more were believed trapped in the higher floors of buildings, without power or phone lines.